Green IT - marketing man's bandwagon?

Do we believe in Green IT?old car

Can IT management buy low energy IT resources and make a difference? Or is this just hype? Steve Pikett, Head of IT, Rothschild commented ¨There is a need for industry to look beyond ‘Green IT’ and examine the root causes of IT inefficiency (planning, design, data retention policy, strategy, structure and use). We treat IT as an almost unlimited resource, storing far beyond the useful life of data, and operating at speeds far in excess of the real requirement, and we do it because we can, not because we need to.¨

Good point. As with so many areas, what we need are standards and accreditation perhaps as a way to drive behaviour. Not only energy efficiency, electricity from Green suppliers, but laso corporate policy to reduce resource reqyuirement. What makes a corporate spend more time and money to buy efficient IT? Probably the ability to let his customers know about it. So car dealerships would love to show off their Green IT accreditation from an industry body, and so perhaps make their customers feel less guilty as they select their next shiny bombshell.

Green IT to feed sales, you say? Its an ongoing dilemma - for me its about awareness and making change happen. Will London's new congestion charges really make a serious difference to global warming? Who knows - but they will sure drive behaviour change for many many people in the UK. Good.

Read more about Sustainable IT at CarbonNews