Green IT Toolkit

Socitm urges councils to go green

Kablenet.com

Published: 04 Dec 2007 16:02 GMT

Councils should begin to take action to minimise their IT's impact on the environment, says a new report from the Society of Information Technology Management.

In the report, Green ICT?, the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm) says the technology industry's green credentials are not as good as is widely thought, and that it accounts for about two percent of global CO2 emissions. But councils can take immediate steps to reduce the impact, even if they have no overall environmental policy.

Most of the recommendations revolve around the finding that manufacture and use are the most environmentally harmful elements of the ICT life cycle. Distribution is relatively benign and there is now legislation to deal with disposal issues.

The report includes an action checklist broken down into six categories: developing strategy; measuring the impact; managing the life cycle of ICT equipment; reducing carbon emissions from the data centre; reducing print and paper; and creating a green organisation through ICT.

Procurement policies can play an important part in this process. The report suggests that councils should go beyond regulatory requirements in specifying greener machines, ensure they know the electricity consumption of equipment and avoid fixed-term technology-refresh deals.

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In the field of disposal, they should favour suppliers with producer take-back schemes and investigate reusing equipment that is not outdated.

In using equipment, they should raise awareness of its energy draw and the implications of "always on" internet connections, encourage the use of more energy efficient laptops, and switch to LED monitors as soon as is practicable.

In a statement released on Thursday, Socitm said: "In addition to putting the ICT function in order, the report shows how carefully planned use of ICT is a major factor in any green change programme designed to reduce an organisation's office estate and travel costs. However, it warns that realistic and accurate environmental accounting for new projects is essential."

Socitm added that the report's authors have drawn heavily on the work of US and EU administrators working to define standards in areas such as carbon counting, energy efficiency and disposal regimes, as well as UK-based groups like the British Computer Society's Data Centre Specialist Group.