Time for hi-tech war on climate change
IT EQUIPMENT accounts for just 2% of carbon emissions causing the global warming furore, but if IT is used astutely it can help to slash the other 98% of emissions produced by every type of industry, according to Gartner analysts.
The effect smart applications of technology could have varies from industry to industry, said Gartner vice-president Simon Mingay, who attended the Davos World Economic Forum to join debates on how IT can mitigate climate change.
Most people saw IT as affecting the environment only through the manufacturing, distribution and eventual disposal of the hardware itself — as well as the running costs while it was in use. The electronic waste created by dumping obsolete equipment was huge, Mingay said, and the running costs were also high because equipment was traditionally built with little concern for energy consumption.
“In the last 12 months, there’s been a massive shift in terms of people being aware of this, but there’s an awful lot of infrastructure that will take years to cycle out,” he said.
CEOs should look at far more than the running costs of the IT infrastructure, however. “IT can be used to reduce the environmental impact of business operations, supply chains, products and services.
Any “green IT” strategy should tackle those things, but few people in IT understand how to assess the environmental impact of a business or how to fix it”, Mingay said. As well as asking what was being done to improve the energy efficiency of the data centre, CEOs also had to ask how IT could reduce the environmental impact of their operations.
In the mining industry, the major environmental damage came from extracting raw materials from the ground. In financial services it was the power consumed in the offices, where IT infrastructure accounted for about 30% of carbon emissions.
Travel and transport were key areas where IT could reduce the environmental damage generated by almost every sector. Video conferencing and work-flow software would let people collaborate without actually getting in a plane, train or car, said Mingay.
Supply chain management software could run “what if” scenarios to check the results of procuring from closer sources or distributing goods via a different mode of transport.
Such calculations were often complex, because air freighting fresh food, for example, may use less energy than using refrigerated delivery trucks.
“IT can help you do that modelling. It’s an area where IT can make a huge contribution for almost any business. This is not rocket science; it’s about thinking creatively,” said Mingay.
“If we assume that the science around climate change is correct and that the political rhetoric turns into tangible action then it’s going to require people to do things differently.”
Mounting concern about climate change in Europe had already forced large companies to act. “Three things will have an impact: costs, changing customer behaviour and government legislation. Climate change represents significant risks and significant opportunities for businesses and IT can help them reduce the risks and exploit the opportunities.”
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