Spend on green computing to create long-term savings

Ollie Ross explores the uptake of environmentally-friendly IT in the UK and how the trend can be enhanced

Green, it would seem, has never been so important to UK plc. If you listen to both IT supplier and government rhetoric, business has undergone something close to a Damascene conversion when it comes to green IT.

However, it is time for a reality check. Let’s be honest and recognise that some IT directors find it easier than others to go green. Beyond basic energy-saving initiatives and better management of business consumables, some IT leaders still find it tough to fully implement green policies -­ but why?

Over 2007, The Corporate IT Forum held numerous workshops and discussions around the challenge of green computing. From such meetings, where senior IT users met to share good practice, it became clear that green IT is right at the top of many chief information officers’ (CIOs’) technology agendas.

However, we also found through such meetings that there are a range of differing attitudes between organisations that consider green computing to be a strategic business issue and the organisations that do not.

While it may seem an obvious statement to make, where the board considers caring for the environment to be part of the brand ­- as is often the case with well known, high-street names ­- green IT is often encouraged. And such a state of affairs is great news for everyone.

But for IT directors that are operating in small firms where being green is less likely to be viewed as a business differentiator, the challenge is significant. Such technology leaders frequently have a far tougher time devoting parts of their budgets to a green IT initiative.

It is under such challenging operating conditions where a green kick start is needed and where the government needs to make environmentally-friendly IT more affordable.

Many of our corporate members have told us that they want to go green. They recognise that the IT department consumes high amounts of energy and are keen to help their firms reduce consumption and control emissions through the innovative use of technologies.

Such members have turned to collaborative working tools and presence technologies to cut the need for travel. Others are buying energy from renewable sources and investing heavily in complex recycling projects where datacentre heat is redistributed to nearby offices -­ or even to local communities.

However, like it or not, CIOs still have to make a business case to spend the large sums of money it takes to go green. Spending must be justified to the board and IT directors working in companies where an environmental approach to technology has not been adopted as central to the brand cite financial pressures and shareholder obligations as the issues holding them back.

The commercial reality is that more environmentally-friendly IT still has a high price tag. There are always going to be competing demands for the money -­ and no company is going to put itself at a competitive disadvantage.

How to ensure all companies are included in the green IT revolution, and not just those high-profile organisations that consider green to be part of the brand, is a vital challenge that the government must consider.

At The Corporate IT Forum, we know that many IT chiefs would go green if the financial barriers for adoption were taken away. Leave environmentalism purely to the market and businesses will invest in green IT -­ but it is going to happen slowly.

Make the technology more affordable now and you could see a rapid and considerable change in behaviour.

Ollie Ross is director of research at The Corporate IT Forum