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The next wave of IT-enabled environmental improvements are likely to include a more structured approach to IT policies, practices and investments, the report notes. The company culture and employee behavior will have to adjust as well, so that everyone is cognizant of the environmental impact of his or her activities. These changes won't come easily; some barriers will have to be overcome. Respondents identified the following as the top three items to be addressed: a lack of information and trusted practices for improving IT's environmental performance; the inability to build a sound business case for green IT investments; and a shortage of capital and well-qualified green IT talent.
Companies will also need to sort through the risks of noncompliance, even though standards and best practices are lacking, and figure out how to calculate and offset the cost of carbon.
It's clearly time, the report notes, for organizations to do the following: determine what type of sustainability information they need, where it should come from, how it should be organized, and how to report it expediently.
IT and finance functions will both play a pivotal role in creating a sustainable enterprise using green IT. But like many surveys that include both IT and finance respondents, the two groups don't always agree on important issues. In this study, 60% of IT respondents (and 57% of business management) said their company has complete, accurate, timely information on IT's impact on the environment. But only 40% of finance respondents agreed that was true, which the report concludes may be because of finance's "heightened risk sensitivity or perhaps their sense of lost opportunity."
It's clear though that business operations and IT must work together to reduce the company's environmental impact and improve overall business performance. In all cases, a tight alignment of green business principles with business strategy is needed.
First movers may struggle due to a lack of established best practices, but they will also get a head start on their competition. And at a time when consumers and regulators are looking favorably on green strategies, that is a business advantage that may be hard to beat.
Also of interest:
Deloitte Tools: Sustainability Reporting Scorecard—a benchmarking and learning tool.
Multidisciplinary Sustainability Framework—a sustainability roadmap that links business strategy to execution, operations and governance and compliance activities. Found on page 35 of "The Next Wave of Green IT" report.
Event:
Interop, May 17—21, 2009, Las Vegas. Green IT Track, May 19—20, offers a strategic view of Green IT into the future, but also practical steps IT professionals can take to move from Green IT awareness to action. Track chair: Doug Washburn, analyst, infrastructure and operations, Forrester Research.
Event:
Green IT Expo, November 10—11, 2009, Barbican Exhibition Centre, London. For senior IT and business decision-makers looking to identify environmentally friendly technologies, green innovations and socially responsible suppliers.
Consortium:
Globally Green Energy Consortium is a non-profit organization founded to improve the ability of businesses, building owners, management and industry to increase their positive impact on our shared environment through the reduction of energy, water, materials and other resources while creating positive business results.
CIOZ Question: How far along is your company in developing its green IT strategy?
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