This was the thought I came away with after an IDC conference I attended last year. It was dedicated to the new, and commendable, focus for the IT industry – saving the planet.
Before I go any further I want to make it clear that I am gravely concerned about the state of our fabulous planet and its obvious decline. (Don't forget lights out at 8:30pm on Saturday.) I am happy that technology has a place in solving environmental issues but I worry that commercial IT is not one of them.
Pardon my cynicism but following on from yesterday’s post I could only see this new battle cry as an expression of the industry’s desire to find new tactical ways of selling stuff.
“OK so we’ve been selling all this nasty high power stuff for ages now but that was all wrong. Get rid of it and replace it with today’s new stuff and the world will be saved.”
The rampant consumerism that is demanded by our industry is my concern. Almost all IT suppliers’ commercial models rely on the fact that there will be a need to replace or renew both hardware and software on a regular basis. Just imagine if we could freeze the industry and be happy with what we had – where would that leave the suppliers? Ok there would be the odd maintenance agreement here and there but that’s about all.
Until this changes I struggle to see how the IT industry can in any way say that it is turning green. It’s just found another reason to shift tin!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
My dear Alan, I'll take up your offer and post a comment on this one since it’s my favourite subject but you’ll have to forgive the length of my reply :)
ReplyDeleteAlthough I agree partially with your comments (yes I think some vendors & suppliers are using 'Green IT' as a way of selling more kit & it is an interesting proposition to stop buying new kit...although that probably won't help the economy!) I think Green IT extends far far beyond just energy savings in the IT data centre.
But before I get to that I just want to say that regardless of Green IT being the ‘in’ thing right now, environmental legislation (such as carbon credits) & natural technological advancement will dictate that technology will both help solve environmental issues (such as computer modelling of climate change) and become more environmentally aware (such as more energy efficient, using less toxins in manufacture, improvement in the recycling of computing components etc).
People sometimes say to me that they don’t believe in climate change or that IT can’t really be green, but it really doesn’t matter if we believe it is true, because governments are creating legislation to reduce carbon/water/ewaste, companies are developing policies outside IT to dictate improved environmental impacts (and IT is being called upon to help deliver!), investors are considering business’ environmental credentials, people are looking to work for businesses that have corporate social responsibility, and research grants & bank loans are cross-checked by environmental elements. And of course IT is just one component of a business, which we sometimes forget I think.
My motto when it comes to Green IT is 'gain knowledge & create balance’. If there was one thing that was hammered home when I studied environmental science it is that one change to the environment has an impact on something else. In IT terms, changing your servers to more energy efficient ones without a set of solid business reasons simply creates additional eWaste - so you are trading direct energy use for indirect energy use & waste creation. Did you know it takes 240kg of fossil fuels to make a single computer (10x its own weight – far more than any other whitegoods or electronics, which typically have a 1:1 ratio), 22kg of chemicals & 680kg water? And when these materials are dug up from the earth & manufactured they dramatically (negatively) change the surrounding environment. Then when we are finished with them, they are often shipped to & dumped in some third world country to pollute the land & water streams with the reasoning they are allowing poor people to earn an income on the recovery of materials (on this point I highly recommend reading “High Tech Trash” by Elizabeth Grossman & going to www.ban.org to see this situation for yourself).
So its all comes down to balance & knowledge. And although many IT vendors are currently plying their 'green' wares & they seem to be the loudest voices currently, I also trust that people will not be glamoured & will take the time to consider all benefits, impacts, issues & risks specific to their situation when they consider Green IT solutions; and I do hope that the IT industry will see value in contributing to environmental research & develop software to support it.
Cheerio,
Miss B
www.greenitstrategy.com