Businesses in Guernsey are being given the first local opportunity to help limit climate change by signing up to a new scheme which will ensure that carbon emissions from computer servers are effectively cancelled out. Itex, the largest provider of managed IT services in the Channel Islands has launched the ‘Itex carbon neutral scheme’ which, as well as reducing the carbon footprint of local companies, will also help communities in Madagascar and Western Australia.

Richard Parker, the Managing Director of Itex, said, ‘We’re keen to be an environmentally responsible business and our carbon neutral scheme helps us to do this and also helps our clients achieve the same end. Data centres are known to be very efficient for clients who wish to have that element of their IT set-up managed cost-effectively and securely - but they can also be major users of power. Our clients want to do the right thing environmentally and now with this system, for the first time in Guernsey they can.’

Itex is fully committed to being a socially responsible business. Recently, Trewin Restorick, the Director of Global Action Plan which advises the UK Government on climate change matters spoke at a major Itex event. He applauded the company’s move to take the lead in bringing environmentally responsible schemes and processes such as this to businesses in the Islands.

Mr Parker continued, ‘A great deal of work has gone into this scheme. We’ve calculated a rate of less than one hundred pounds per year for each rack they have with us in our data centres. This spend goes a long way with the projects we’ve chosen, so we can do a lot of good there but it is also affordable for our clients. Our expectation is that they will see the scheme as an effective and easy way to introduce environmentally friendly initiatives without placing an additional resource burden on them.’

The measures that form part of the Itex carbon neutral scheme cover two practical schemes that reduce the carbon footprint. The first is an initiative that reduces carbon output through an energy efficiency scheme in Madagascar which has many other associated social, environmental and educational community benefits. The second is a scheme in Western Australia that will see the planting of many fast-growing trees which is therefore extremely effective at absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen back into the atmosphere at a rate faster than might be achieved with slower growing trees in the Channel Islands. 

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For further information about this Press release, please contact Andrew Carey at White Knight Public Relations on 01481 714588.