Elite Group IT On Going Green
March 17, 2021
Back To NewsAt Elite Group IT, we recognise that we all have an obligation to protect the planet, promote sustainability and conserve the environment around us.
Over the past few years, we’ve been moving our business towards a greener way of operating, implementing big and small changes that all add up to make a difference to the planet and our island. As we continue into 2021, we aim to continue adopting more sustainable ways of working, as well as finding more ways that we can make a positive impact to our island.
So as spring approaches, we felt it was an appropriate time to look back at the ways we have already gone green.
From Data Centre To Cloud-First
While the saying may be ‘every cloud has a silver lining’, here at Elite Group IT, our Cloud certainly has a green one. In 2020, we decided to decommission our date centre and move towards a cloud-first strategy with Microsoft Azure. As a Tier-1 Microsoft service provider, Elite Group IT can support local businesses with the migration, management and optimisation of their off-site hosting solution. This transition to a cloud-first strategy not only allowed us to continue offering next-generation hosting services to our customers but also brought with it a host of environmental benefits that helped us go green.
Energy usage in a private data centre is much less efficient than cloud hosting with Microsoft Azure. Indeed, a 2018 study found that the Microsoft Azure cloud platform can be up to more than 93% more efficient and up to 98% more carbon efficient than on-premises solutions. Microsoft’s data centres already run on 60% renewable energy, with the goal of achieving 100% by 2025. By migrating all our customers to the Cloud and decommissioning our data centre, we were able to significantly reduce our overall energy usage and carbon footprint, now and way into the future.
Elite in the Community
As part of our ‘locals for locals’ commitment, Elite Group IT are dedicated to making positive contributions to the community and the island’s environment. Our latest environmental project involved planting 100 trees in conjunction with the Woodland Trust. On top of this, we also made a generous donation to the charity to support the amazing work they do here on the island. Overall, the donation will enable the Woodland Trust to plant over 400 trees across various projects on the island.
Falk Horning, Chairman of the Woodland Trust, had this to say about Elite Group IT: “We thank Elite Group IT for the generous donation, which is going to enable the planting of over 400 native trees. These will provide valuable wildlife habitats and increase the island’s natural capital, leaving a legacy for future generations”.
Less Paper, More Digital
One of the big perks of being an IT company is the ability to optimise our processes with digital technology, including the ability to ditch paper processes entirely by keeping everyone online. At Elite Group IT and across the wider Group, we adopted a digital HR system that keeps all employee documents and information in one centralised place, and more importantly digitally, rather than printed on paper.
The platform even contains a built-in electronic signature that allows employees to sign and store all these important documents and contracts digitally on the HR portal. This company-wide technology allows us to reduce our overall paper consumption and the amount of paper that goes to waste.
Working From Home With Teams
Like most businesses across the world, 2020 was the year we really embraced working from home. Throughout the pandemic, lockdowns, and circuit breakers, one piece of software that has been essential to the continued operation of Elite Group IT is Microsoft Teams. The collaborative function of Teams allows us to continue working together, lockdown or no lockdown.
As we slowly work our way back to normality, one thing is clear; working from home is here to stay. With the right technology in place, we can empower our team to work effectively from anywhere. Offering work from home and flexible working options also reduces our employee carbon footprint, especially if they have a long commute to drive to the office.
Goodbye to Single-use plastic
At Elite Group IT, we realised that we wanted to cut down on the single-use plastics used in our office. To help eliminate the use of disposable cups and bottles, we provided all our employees with their own branded reusable bottles and travel mugs. For a company that enjoys coffee and hot chocolate as much as we do, that’s a lot of disposable cups saved each year!
In addition to this, we also have a kitchen well stocked with plates, bowls and cutlery to ensure our team have everything they need if they want to bring in homemade lunches, rather than buying lunches wrapped in single-use plastics.
Supporting local businesses
As the island’s only locally owned IT and unified communications provider, we pride ourselves on helping local businesses move towards a digital and cloud-based future. By empowering Manx businesses to move away from both paper-based processes and on-site hosting, we can pass on the environmental benefits to companies across the island by reducing both their carbon footprint and paper consumption.
If you’re looking to embrace your IT future, all while doing your bit for the planet, get in touch with Elite Group IT today. Our range of next-generation hosted solutions can power your communication, collaboration, productivity and profitability.
Elite Group IT is one of the island’s leading IT and unified communication providers, supplying reliable and professional IT and telecoms services to organisations seeking Connectivity, UC & Voice, Cloud Service, IT Software and Security solutions.
For more information on how Elite Group IT can help your business flourish through technology, contact us today.