The groundwork for Hewlett Packard’s Sustainable IT Ecosystem Lab was set in place in March 2008 when the company restructured its Research and Development division known as HP Labs, to intensify its focus on fewer project. To aid in this endeavor, 23 labs were set up all over the world with an attention to “information explosion,” dynamic cloud services, content transformation, and intelligent infrastructure.

HP has identified their immediate problem as pursuing a green agenda, predicting a possible conflict between IT departments and facilities teams – productive workers utilizing more powerful servers and PCs vs. requirements that often pay the energy bills. Common ground may be reached before focusing on the wider business needed to save costs in the datacenter. Rising power requirements will force some companies to relocate their datacenters due to power shortages with some relocating as far as Norway for their wind energy and Iceland for its geothermal energy.

United States companies are criticized for over-cooling their datacenters because the cost of cooling has surpassed the cost of powering the actual equipment. A recent survey found that 44% of United Kingdom-based IT leaders believe that sustainability is a board-level issue and 30% anticipate increases in their budget for technologies that support this issue. Sustainable practices include virtualization and datacenter consolidation.

A trade show and retail graphics firm based in View Valley, Post-Up Stand, Inc. started with one employee in 2004 and has grown to an anticipated 30-35 by the end of 2008. The company produces roll-up banners, tabletop displays, scrolling banners, and other graphic signs for trade shows.

Post-Up Stand started as another business entirely – a printing company that specialized in business cards, letterhead, and fliers. However, their profit margins began to decline and they began looking for a new market and moved into producing banners because they saw it as a growing industry. They found that more new trade shows were taking place and they used banners such as roll-ups.

Aside from trade shows, Post-Up supplies roll-up banners and many other types to stores, hotels, and universities. Recently, they have begun producing outdoor banners for sporting events such as golf tournaments.