Black mark for banks' green IT

Beverley Head
Wednesday, 06 April 2011 10:04

Business IT - Technology

Australia's banks have scored a black mark for their progress on green IT initiatives from an international survey of financial sector sustainability measure potentially placing them at a competitive disadvantage compared to their greener international peers.

Australian banks have gone for the quick wins - turning PCs off at night for example - but they are well behind their peers in the UK and US in terms of a comprehensive approach to green IT.

Fujitsu today released the findings of its Green IT Financial Services Industry Benchmark which found that while Australia's financial services organisations were now on a par with other Australian industry sectors in terms of their move to sustainable computing practices, they were lagging the progress made in the US and UK. In the four country survey only India fared worse.

According to the report which was conducted in association with Connection Research although the big banks have performed better than smaller financial sector players; 'The results indicate that in many cases Australian financial institutions have undertaken 'quick wins' at the end user level, such as turning PCs off at night,' which, while important, represented only a sliver of the total savings available.

It noted that; 'Whilst Australia has an advanced financial services industry that is a sophisticated user of IT, this does not extend to green IT. Australian financial institutions are generally below organisations in other industries when it comes to implementing green IT techniques and technologies.'

Banks have lifted their game somewhat however. Analysis of the sector by Connection Research 18 months ago had the banks at the bottom of the green IT ladder, and well behind other Australian industry sectors.

Alison Rowe, global sustainability executive director for Fujitsu said that banks weren't yet 'moving to the harder challenges' and so were 'leaving a lot of cost savings and emissions savings on the table.'

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