Issue 5 October 2008
Green IT: IT won’t cost the earth
by John McCreesh
IT has a key part to play in delivering a ‘Green’ Agenda for companies
– but it needs the help of its customers to succeed
Across the globe, companies are striving to become file sharing, instant messaging, online polling, and virtual
responsible global citizens, demonstrated by having a workplaces). Why travel for a Town Hall meeting when
strong Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda. you can attend a Webinar at your desk?
Environmental impact ranks high on the list of CSR hot
issues
1
, and in May this year, the European Commission behInd The Green fronT door
singled out IT as a key enabler for helping companies So, at first glance, IT has a good story to tell. However,
achieve environmental targets
2
. in environmental matters, what you see at the green front
door doesn’t always reflect what’s going on down in the
Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) are quick to point basement. In the UK alone, the Department of Trade and
out that using IT to deliver more efficient business Industry estimated in October 2007 that the country’s PCs
processes regularly generates environmental benefits and servers were already consuming 14% more power
as a side effect. For example: using email and screen- than the entire power consumption of Luxembourg, and
based workflow systems instead of paper shuffling, and the figure is still rising
5
. Worldwide it is estimated that IT
imaging instead of paper archives. now accounts for 2% of all carbon emissions, placing it on
a par with that bête noire of environmentalists, the aviation
IT can also claim credit for a reduction in business sector
6
. How has such a comparatively light industry
originated travel. More than 41 million employees globally generated such a large carbon footprint?
will use teleworking individually for at least one day a
week throughout 2008
3
. "Virtual Call Centre" technology Roughly half of IT’s carbon footprint comes from corporate
can route calls seamlessly to home-based agents, data centres. The U.S. Department of Energy has publicly
enabling whole departments to work from home
4
. voiced concerns that these facilities consumed 1.5% of
Travelling to meetings can also be reduced using video the nation’s 2006 energy output – and consumption is
and audio conferencing facilities, supplemented by a growing at 12% annually
7
. A hard-hitting report from
range of collaboration tools on the desktop (including McKinsey
8
painted a bleak picture of the current state
4 | Perspectives on the future
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