Australia drops the ball on green IT

Beverley Head
Thursday, 26 August 2010 08:16

Business IT - Technology

More than four out of five Australian IT departments have never seen their power bill - a stark example of how a lack of metrics has led to Australia falling behind the UK and US when it comes to greening ICT.

A report released today by Fujitsu Australia has ranked the nation's 'green IT maturity' pretty lowly, with a score of 53.9 out of a possible 100. One of the key issues identified was the poor metrics being used by IT departments, which was affecting organisations' ability to implement green IT strategies.

Alison O'Flynn, Fujitsu's global executive director sustainability, said that the report had also found that 85 per cent of organisations used spreadsheets to manage their carbon footprint. 'I'd be surprised if that gives any form of business analytics,' she added.

Another impediment to greener IT is lack of leadership. In Australia 43.6 per cent of organisations had not or would not consider having someone responsible for green IT. The comparable figures in the UK were just 19.7 per cent and 24.9 per cent in the US, with both nations scoring more highly in terms of green IT maturity.

Only 12.2 per cent of Australia's CIOs have taken on green IT responsibility.

The lack of action is particularly galling given what could be achieved by IT in terms of reducing overall carbon emissions.

In the foreword to the report, Green IT: the Global Benchmark, Jonathon Porritt, founding director of the Forum for the Future, noted that; 'With some justification the IT industry has pointing out that it can do more than offset the negative consequences of its own growth in emissions by enabling other industries to reduce their emissions,' - according to some estimates by a factor of five.