Last week, it was announced that Facebook has agreed to work
with Greenpeace to promote clean energy, and encourage major
utilities to develop renewable energy generation. So the goal is to run on
clean, renewable energy rather than using traditional sources, thus saving
money and becoming - at the risk of sounding extremely cliché - more
environmentally friendly.
The NGO is now trying to get other IT giants like
Apple, Microsoft and Twitter to follow Facebook's lead and
move towards clean energy. According to Greenpeace, the amount of electricity
used by major IT companies to power their energy-hungry data centres is set to
triple by 2020.
Whenever I ask an IT exec whether they know the carbon footprint of the
technology running in their organisations, the answer is invariably no. Or
"we are working on it," but they rarely ever have real results to
show in that respect.
But some organisations have made progress. At Computer Weekly's
UKtech50 event earlier this month, the technology director at Guardian
News & Media Andy Beale was talking about the concept of digital
sustainability, whereby companies would be able to measure the carbon emissions
of a single click. More information about their work can be
found here and here.
I found Andy's talk fascinating, but you could tell by the expressions on
some of the attendees' faces that this is an extremely novel concept. How many
organisations can say they are genuinely using technology in a sustainable manner
AND using IT to reduce their employer's impact on the environment?
I would be very interested in hearing from any IT chief who is actively
working on such initiatives.
Sure, the industry needs better and clearer guidelines on how to do this
effectively, but those in charge of technology must be better informed and more
proactive when it comes to green IT. If you are not working on it because
you don't know where to start, then ask for advice. If you are doing this
already, then share best practices openly.
Given the CIO's powerful position to drive change when it comes to running
a corporate environment in a more sustainable manner, rolling eyes and/or not
doing anything about is not only irresponsible. It is simply not an option......more
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