The concept of Green IT is sometimes hard for people to get a hold on. The words themselves "Information Technology" sound weightless and futuristic, perhaps leading us to the misconception the IT itself is inherently efficient and green. Like everything we do however IT has an environmental impact, a much more significant one than most people realise, and building awareness of this is the first step to reducing that impact.
"The global information and communications technology (ICT) industry accounts for approximately 2 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a figure equivalent to aviation" - Gartner 2007
So firstly, what are we talking about when we say IT equipment? The list includes items such as:
The environmental impacts come in much the same way the impacts come from any equipment - manufacture, use and disposal. Green IT has specific challenges in all the areas of:
Green IT is concerned with all these effects. We want to minimise the negative effects by encouraging equipment that:
Green IT goes beyond purchasing and usage though into how IT can be used to lessen other aspects of our environmental impact.
One obvious way is what we call dematerialisation, changing physical processes to virtual ones. Everyone is familiar with how the internet has revolutionised the distribution of music, what they may not be aware of are the significant environmental savings from avoiding packaging, transport, material production and shop space that this entails. This process can be done in many other areas, such as business meetings, home working, conferences, training, distribution, business processes and a whole host of other innovative areas. It is win-win, more efficient businesses and less environmental impact.
Green IT goes on to address how the use of smart technology could make many other processes more efficient. What if your house knew when you'd left home for the weekend and could turn off all power to non essential devices you've identified, what if this fed back to the electricity company so they could make smart decisions about routing power to consumers, allowing them to optimise production, what if the electricity companies then fed back into a national grid that could make smarter decisions nationally, requiring less power stations to be built and constantly producing power in the first place. All of these things and many more are possible with the smarter use of Information Technology and we are still at the dawn of understanding its possibilities.
Ultimately the concept of Green IT touches all our lives and brings together two great themes concerning the future of our current world, technology and the environment.
It's important for people to understand what Green IT is, for businesses to engage with it, and for our decision makers to be aware of it's consequences and potential in helping us get to a sustainable world.
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For businesses that want to know more and embark on the journey, our business programmes can get your staff engaged on the journey to leaner and greener IT.
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