Why Green IT is Good for Your Business and Good for You

Presenter: Dr. Helmut Reisinger (Senior Vice President Europe, Orange Business Services)

It is interesting that "green awareness" figures from this speaker are different: only 21% indicate that energy efficiency is the number one or a big consideration. Note also the difference between this speaker (talking about energy efficiency) and Simon Mingay talking about carbon emissions—being energy efficiency is good, but not good enough. 57% of companies have a strategy to reduce the carbon produced by their companies. Less than 50% of those companies mentioned ICT as a part of their plans to reduce CO2 emissions. Nearly no CIOs are involved in setting environmental agenda.

A Green IT strategy: gives quick return on investment; enhances efficiency (by providing a smart-workplace); easier information sharing; a reassuring "green" image; can position a company as "green". We need to determine how much we would save in carbon footprint if we could let people work from home—how much does the average commute cost in carbon terms? How many times does someone need to work at home to cover the cost of setting them up to work from home? Compared with ISS team members working from home, finding ways to reduce the amount of distance travel done by the university would have a much larger benefit.