IT’s C02 Emissions Flying High
IT’s C02 Emissions Flying High
April 30, 2007: According to Gartner, IT’s global contribution to Climate Change is equal to that of the aviation industry, with the sector accumulating to total two percent of worldwide C02 emissions.
Gartner’s estimates are made by addressing the global use of PCs, servers, cooling, LAN, office telecommunications and printers, while also taking into account design, manufacture and distribution factors. The estimate takes into account all commercial and governmental IT and telecommunication infrastructures, but excludes consumer electronics outside of cell phones and PCs.
Taking responsibility for 2 percent of the world’s total It’s a figure C02 emissions, Gartner says the figure is simple unsustainable for the future of the industry.
Speaking at the Gartner Symposium/ITexpo 2000 in San Francisco last week, Gartner analysts examined IT’s impact on the environment, the risks to the industry and the steps vendors can take to become greener.
While Gartner says intense media coverage has contributed to heightened concern over increased power costs and C02 emissions, Gartner also believes it’s no longer a matter of social responsibility, but rather the need to reduce the risks of doing nothing.
Simon Mingay, research VP at Gartner, told his San Francisco audience to expect the next five years to involve increased financial, environmental, legislative and risk-related pressures on IT organisations to go ‘green.’
“When enough buyers start demanding it and we get beyond the superficial, being ‘less bad’ will no longer be anywhere near acceptable,” said Mingay. That point will be reached in 2007 and 2008 for some geographies, particularly Europe, with other countries and regions taking longer.”
Moving forward, Gartner believes the industry needs to gain a better understanding of the full life cycle of ICT products and services, while innovating on technologies that reduce the environmental footprint. While this type of innovation is not necessarily being pushed by commercial of legislative interests at the moment, Gartner believes buyers will start to ask more questions during the next three years.
Away from the vendors and into the enterprise, Gartner recommends IT departments familiarise themselves with CSR policies and organisational environmental objectives. “They need to decide whether to take a proactive response, a measured response following the market and legislation, or a passive approach that just meets legal requirements,” said Mingay. “The roles, responsibilities and programs will be very different for each.”
Gartner recommends IT departments develop a sustainable strategy that includes measuring power consumption, consuming fewer servers, taking up virtualisation technologies, improving cooling efficiency, increasing power management and extending the life of assets.