Australian green IT report sets high watermark

Beverley Head
Friday, 23 July 2010 12:01

Business IT - Networking

A report on the carbon implications of information technology, which was issued by the Australian Computer Society earlier this year ranks as an international high watermark according to BMC Software, and is helping Australian companies pioneer sustainable IT practices ahead of their international peers.

Chris Rixon, director of global field marketing for BMC Software, who is currently in Australia said that the ACS’ report Carbon and Computers in Australia remains the most “Comprehensive view of the net impact of carbon, broken down state by state.” Rixon said he would like to see other nations perform a similar baseline examination of their IT related carbon footprint to help enterprises develop a clearer understanding of what is at stake.

Rixon said that in many geographies the move to green IT was driven by the economic benefits that were anticipated, adding “I’ve yet to see a real green IT project that wasn’t massively successful in economic terms.” However he said that in Australia organisations seemed to place just as much emphasis on the carbon outcome of green IT.

“In other geographies there is more of a reticence to do that,” he said. “There seems to be less embarrassment here than in the rest of the world about doing that.”

Internationally he claimed that enterprises were “Just coming to terms with an understanding of the dimensions of the problem,” and that many companies were left scratching their heads about how to get started.

“Australia is very far along compared to other countries. There seems to be a willingness to look at this in a pragmatic way.

“Also there are a number of people who are heads of green IT – as a named function. They are seen as an integral part of the IT team; it is not just a PR title,” he added.