ITWire

"The whole idea of understanding environmental impact is a totally new concept for most IT managers, Mingay told iTWire. "They have not a clue as to how to figure it out and they are looking for help as to what it means and how to innovate...They are getting top down pressure from CEOs because they have suddenly understood the threat or they want a 'me too' strategy, and they are getting pressure from the bottom up from customers and supply chain. The poor IT manager in the middle has to sort it out and they are not being given any extra money to do this. This is conversation I have had with a lot of people here [Gartner IT Symposium, Darling Harbour, Sydney Nov 20-23]."

According to Mingay, this situation presents great opportunities for the major IT equipment and software suppliers: opportunities which they are yet to recognise. "The traditional vendors - IBMs, Suns Dells of the world - either do not seem to understand the opportunity from climate change or just see their job as providing better infrastructure. If you look at their messaging, it is all about power and cooling in the data centre, more efficient power supplies etc, and that is all good but I do not think that is where the big opportunities lie."

Mingay says that, while organisations need to address the 'first order' impacts of climate change - the environmental impacts of the creation and use of information technology -  the second order impacts "are going to be where the big opportunities will lie, and are much more interesting." These are: 'how can we use ICT to improve the environmental sustainability energy efficiency and materia efficiency of business operations, supply chains, products and services?'."