Andrea Di MaioThis morning I was reading an email sent by my colleague Richard Harris with a couple of press highlights about Green IT in the Australian Government, and at the same time I was listening to the news highlighting that the Democratic presidential candidate believes millions of jobs can be created in the environmental industry.
This made me think about whether and how the current economic woes will impact the environmental sustainability objectives that many governments have set for their jurisdictions and their own organizations. When people fight for their jobs and enterprises fight for survival, government priorities unavoidably shift toward welfare and relief to companies in distress. Indeed the “green industry” has a potential, but that potential is connected to the willingness of enterprises and individuals to invest in environmental sustainability. Alternative energy sources, hybrid vehicles, lifecycle energy considerations in procurement, green buildings: none of these come for free and, while their longer term benefits are clear, what is less clear is whether companies and government can afford them in these difficult times.
It is very likely that governments will focus their green initiatives on those aspects that grant immediate savings in terms of energy cost, but may be less willing to impose stricter “green” requirements (e.g. in terms of energy lifecycle cost, waste reduction as well as environmental sustainability of their suppliers) in their procurement processes, since this would put additional pressures on suppliers that are already struggling. Also funds available for investments in green technology research, development and deployment could be partially diverted toward measures needed to sustain industry sectors at risk.
A few months ago, a CIO in large municipal organization told me that “there is nothing greener than the dollar” to stress that their green IT commitment was tightly connected to energy cost savings, but there was little interest for investing in green IT for purely environmental purposes. What she said is going to be true for many organizations.
At our upcoming symposium in Orlando we will run a panel with this very title: I hope some of you will be able to join us.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Mark Raskino September 18, 2008 at 3:20 am
I agree Andrea – superficial greening will be a casualty of the economic downturn. That’s a good thing too. As I said in a research note a year ago (G00151362) – enterprises must separate out two complex and relatively new management challenges if they are learn how to deal with them effectively. Electrical energy cost and volatility is one issue, sustainability is another. The myth to be busted is that they naturally, simply and always coincide. Watch for clear environmental strategy reaffirmation from leaders who are really committing to green – like this one from Stuart Rose, CEO at Marks & Spencer: http://www.hbrgreen.org/2008/03/the_hard_economics_of_green.html
If you don’t see a similar statement in your own organization, assume they are quietly ‘ditching the fluffy stuff’ as he puts it – or at least de-prioritizing it for a while.
2 njones September 18, 2008 at 5:04 am
Even if there were no economic downturn the proponents of green IT need to do a better job of explaining why it’s important, because I still see a lot of folks who think it’s a low value distraction rather than a vital initiative. At the end of last year I delivered the Gartner “top 10 technolgies” presentation in Australia; this presentation cites green IT as one of our top 10. I was lucky enough to have the audience wired up for real time surveys, and so I asked them to vote for which of the 10 technologies they thought was most valuable, and which was most disruptive. The Australian audience were very negative about green IT, over 20% voted it as the most disruptive technology and about 2% voted it as the most valuable. Some of this result may be down to the fact that the IT people in the audience tend to see the costs of green IT rather than the benefits. But it illustrates that there’s still a lot of education and explanation needed.
3 Simon Mingay September 24, 2008 at 5:22 am
There is so much inefficiency in IT infrastructures that there is plenty of opportunity for most enterprises to get relatively quick financial returns on “green IT” investments. The “Green IT Scorecard” we’ve been running has highlighted some big differences in efficiencies between average and upper-quartile performers.
But to your point Andrea, to further motivate enterprises we will likely see public policy and fiscal measures to incent the “right” behaviours – that will range from rebates on utility bills for buying the right equipment, through carbon cap&trade schemes.
And Nick, you should ask that question in Australia this year – I think the answer might be a little different. Post-election Australia has become probably the fastest moving country in the world in terms of it tackling climate change.
4 Green IT Panel for Government in Orlando October 20, 2008 at 1:57 pm
[...] Tuesday last week I had the pleasure to moderate a panel on “Is There Anything Greener Than The Dollar?“. Panelists were Terry Redman, CIO of South West Florida Water Management District and [...]