An Advisory Council, made up of major environmental authorities and the top CEOs of Mexico, led by the Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), gave the GREEN COMM AWARD for the first time during EXPO COMM MEXICO 2008.

Ten proposals were submitted in the three categories of this competition organized by E.J. Krause de Mexico:

Ecological solutions

Hitachi participated with its Adaptable Modular Storage and Workgroup Modular Storage Midrange storage products based on the ecological Solutions initiative that is helping increase energy efficiency in data centers, optimize refrigeration and re-use resources. In March 2007, 1012 products out of 5491 were certified as green products, increasing Hitachi's sales by 83%.

AMD participated with two products, its AMD Athlon X2 Energy Efficient and Chipset AMD series 690 processors. Their benefits include energy-efficient battery use in portable equipment; demand-based performance as required by the application, and less heat emission under normal operating conditions, making for cooler, more silent computer equipment.

This initiative is being implemented on the global level with a Mexican market, offering the users of these processors a reduction of up to 70% in energy consumption with regard to the processor and an average of 20% reduction in energy consumption for the equipment overall.

Polycom presented a proposal based on video- and audio-conferencing solutions that reduce fuel-derived emissions of CO² and contaminating gases in its aim to reduce social and environmental impact and maximize market opportunities and operational efficiency.

All Polycom products comply with RoHS guidelines restricting the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment and are Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)-certified.

Western Digital participated with its new Green Power platform that aims to provide consumers with an energy savings of up to 40% in the energy consumption of their hard drive. Storage is one of the biggest energy consumers in data equipment.

A single 1-terabyte hard drive lacking this technology has an average energy consumption of more than 13.5 watts. If this hard drive is replaced by a GreenPower hard drive platform of the same capacity, this consumption can be reduced by more than 5 watts, thus reducing heat emissions and energy consumption. This energy savings is equivalent to reducing carbon emissions by up to 60 kgs per unit per year, which is equivalent to leaving your car parked 14 days a year.

Tandberg presented its initiative for promoting visual communication and videoconferencing solutions through corporate programs that promote natural communication without sacrificing a company's goals of growth and development.

Vodafone eliminated 13,500 flights a year by adopting videoconferencing. This strategy reduced carbon emissions by more than 5,500 tons per year. HSBC is the first bank to be free of carbon emissions, thanks to its Tandberg videoconferencing system that operates through its IP network. The Health Secretariat of Yucatán also has this system, as well as the Asociación Nacional de Distribuidores de Volkswagen (National Volkswagen Distributors Association). Soriana installed 35 videoconferencing units (in 35 stores) and communication among its locations improved by 85 percent.

With similar objectives, Levicom, thanks to its e-commerce and digitalization solutions, has avoided the printing of 245,000,000 sheets of letter paper weighing approximately 6.25 grams per sheet over the past 10 years.

This has had the following positive impact: 1,000,000 sheets of paper is equivalent to 6.25 tons of paper; one ton of paper is equivalent to 24 trees; 245 million sheets is equivalent to 1531.25 tons of paper; 1531.25 tons of paper is equivalent to 36,750 trees; 1531.25 tons of paper is equivalent to saving 153,125,000 liters of water.

In other words, as a result of the use of Levicom's solutions, some 245,000,000 sheets and 1531.25 tons of paper have been saved, thus saving 36,750 trees and 153,125,000 liters of water.

Technological waste solutions

The Advisory Council of the Green Comm Award was surprised by the activities and results of the participating ICT companies. In the case of Category Two for "Companies that are applying programs for managing and re-using technological waste," which saw the participation of companies such as APC, HP, IBM, Nokia and Sun Microsystems, the award went to HP.

HP, Hewlett-Packard Mexico, presented its Environmental Health and Safety policy initiative for consideration, a policy it is implementing from inside the company. Sustainable environmental responsibility, energy efficiency, innovation in materials and recycling-oriented design are the priorities of the initiative.

In the same category, APC, a global provider of backup solutions for critical energy and refrigeration environments, presented its "Efficient Enterprise" initiative using power supply, refrigeration and energy management components that automatically interact in harmony to reduce operating costs and increase energy efficiency.

The initiative is based on four principles for optimizing the effectiveness of data equipment: containing heat, concentrating refrigeration on the source of heat, correct sizing of components, and managed capacity. Efficient Enterprise reduces electrical power consumption in a typical piece of data equipment by 30%.

Sun Microsystems participated in the first two categories, companies that are developing green equipment and companies that are implementing initiatives to re-use technological waste, with its "Eco Innovation" program that receives $2 billion of R&D funding each year.

The goal is for total network products to supply energy in a more effective manner, occupy less space and provide better performance, from desktops to entire computer centers. Sun is manufacturing these products with components and protocols that are standard for the sector so that they easily complement one another.

The focus of this action is on reducing energy consumption - Ultra-Spar T1 and T2 processors with Coolthreads technology, which reduces core energy consumption, and Sunblade systems, which consume 23% less energy. In computer infrastructure, only 5% of energy is consumed.

IBM submitted a Category Two proposal to the Advisory Council for the first Green Comm Award on the initiatives it is carrying out in its El Salto Jalisco plant, which is dedicated to manufacturing machines that handle magnetic tape and software systems development.

This initiative involves the manufacture of equipment that features energy-saving systems, contamination prevention and reduction of environmental risk. When it comes to saving energy, it is a constant challenge to develop new projects and initiatives.