| Synopsis: |
'Climate change', 'global warming' and, before that, 'the new ice age' have all been fashionably topical issues about which individuals and organizations have worried themselves over the course of the last twenty years or so. Forrester, in a late 2008 report titled "Market Overview: A Slowing Economy Won't Slow Down Corporate Green it Initiatives", says: 'the slowing economy will not derail efforts to make IT operations more efficient and less environmentally harmful. In fact, of responding companies that are changing the pace of their green IT activities in response to the economic outlook, those going faster outnumber those slowing down by two to one'. A plethora of often emotionally-held views about the reality or otherwise of climate change has emerged more recently. There is now a widely-held scientific consensus that global warming is a bad thing, will lead to the extinction of human life as we know it, and is all humanity's fault. There are also opposing arguments, although these arguments are not as well known nor as widely promulgated (perhaps because those who have them are less well funded). 'Green' has become an important business issue.If consumers want to buy from Green organizations, then organizations have to consider their positions, their marketing strategies, their product ranges and their overall operational approach. While there is also a fast-growing market for suppliers of Green products and services, there is a much larger group of organizations that does not yet know how it should respond to the 'Green business' challenge, not least because the business benefits of pursuing a Green strategy are not necessarily that well articulated. Whatever else the modern organization does, it almost certainly had an energy dependency, and it almost certainly uses and relies on information and communications technology (ICTA or, more simply, ITA). Energy is an expensive commodity, and IT infrastructure and running costs in most organizations are substantial. A business cost-containment strategy that focuses on these aspects of the IT cost base is also one that has direct, quantifiable climate benefits. From a simplistic perspective, it doesn't really matter whether an organization is motivated by a desire to save the planet or simply to save money, the results of pursuing a Green IT strategy will include both.This guide was written to introduce, to a business audience, the opposing groups and the key climate change concepts, to provide an overview of a Green IT strategy and to set out a straightforward, bottom line-orientated Green IT action plan. The fact that this will also enable the organization to comply with the growing range of ecologically-focused range of regulations is an additional benefit! |