Time for green IT to show true colours

It is difficult to tell if green computing is today’s hot topic, or if people are getting fed up hearing about it.

A good turnout and high-profile speakers at last week’s Green IT 2008 conference in London suggests the environment is very much a topic for debate among IT leaders.

But casual conversation among delegates included talk of too much “greenwash” and inboxes overflowing with eco-messages.

There is no shortage of comment on the subject, and organisations are keen to promote their credentials ­- all of which is a good thing. Huge steps have been taken in the 18 months since Computing launched its green computing campaign, when best practice was thin on the ground.

Given the accumulated learning in such a short time, it seems churlish to say that we are running out of new ideas. But there is a whiff of repetitiveness.

For all the debate, the same themes are cropping up time and again ­ do the easy things first; green IT is more about saving money than saving the environment; and the difficulty of measuring and benchmarking environmental credentials, to name some of the most common.

Green technology is very much on the agenda for IT leaders, but is not at the top. The reality is that only so much progress will be made if the subject is under the spotlight purely for topical reasons, and a desire to be seen to be doing something. Until green computing is part of everyday computing, little will really have been achieved.

So, how do we take that step?

One respected commentator, Freeform Dynamics analyst David Tebbutt, put it well in conversation with Computing -­ green IT needs a jolt. It needs a fresh kick-start to go beyond being trendy and become a business essential. The nature of that jolt is yet to be apparent.

But it is sorely needed to finally make sure that the case for green is black and white.

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