Emissions from the information and communications technology (ICT) sector are growing rapidly, with recent studies suggesting the sector currently comprises around two per cent of global emissions, with the figure expected to double by 2020.
While it might not sound like a big deal, to put it in perspective the current two per cent figure is more than the total emissions of Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia combined, or equivalent to the entire global aviation industry. But while we can begin to conceptualise aviation pollution by simply looking up on a sunny day, for the ICT sector it is a little less tangible.
How much energy are our computers and office equipment using? What effect does all that equipment have on our office cooling bill? What’s happening to all our old equipment? And how green are the data centres our business depends upon?
This Green ICT book developed by The Fifth Estate in collaboration with CitySwitch aims to help clear up some of these questions and provide some simple solutions to make sure your ICT is running as efficiently as possible. Not only is efficient ICT good for the environment, it is good for the bottom line. It also opens up possibilities for transforming the office environment and boosting productivity – think energy efficient laptops or thin client devices being used in an activity-based working environment, where telecommuting, working from a client’s office or on the train is a simple, secure option.
Greening your office ICT doesn’t have to be an expensive pursuit, either. Indeed, some of the solutions are behavioural – as easy as putting someone in charge of making sure equipment isn’t left on overnight. Others, like moving servers into a purpose-built data centre or going fully into the cloud, are less straightforward, but nonetheless offer massive efficiencies that can lead to increased business competitiveness.
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