Some more highlights from the ComputerWorld piece:

Discovery did the right thing by focusing on an audit first, since abandoned servers are a common problem. "Many companies have servers that are running but not doing anything," Mines says. He says companies should focus on this and other "quick wins" -- such as unblocking air vents and adding blanking panels in data center equipment racks to optimize airflow -- before moving to bigger projects, such as server consolidation and virtualization.

Kline followed that same strategy on the cooling side. The company sealed up server racks, moved to a hot aisle/cold aisle design to optimize airflow and then installed high-efficiency chillers. But it also saved energy by simply raising temperature set points. Many data centers are overcooled, so settings can often be turned up without causing problems [...]

Discovery says that energy savings have approached 20% since the data center was re-engineered, high-efficiency chillers were installed, and server, storage and networking equipment was consolidated. [...]

Outside of the data center, Discovery has encouraged workers to telecommute and teleconference. [...] In 2004, Discovery installed teleconferencing systems to cut down on business travel. [...] The business uses networked printers, all of which are on the lightest print setting by default. Many printers are also set to print double-sided pages, and Kline is pushing to expand that. [...]

for the electricity Discovery consumes companywide, it purchases offsets in the form of wind-power credits from Pepco Holdings Inc., a local utility. "What we can't reduce or recycle, we offset," Laque says.

Overall, Discovery cut its energy bill by 27% in its headquarters.

Wondering who's #1 according to ComputerWorld? Highmark Inc.

::Top 12 Green-IT Users: No. 2 Discovery Communications LLC

See also: ::Discovery Headquarters Get LEED Platinum, ::TreeHugger Acquires Discovery Communications

Photo by Michael Graham Richard