Government CIOs lead green IT charge

Beverley Head
Tuesday, 29 September 2009 12:42

IT Industry - Market

O’Flynn told iTWire that there were different Green IT drivers in Government. “The private sector is very focussed on cost savings. The government agencies are focussed on cost mitigation and are more altruistic regarding Green IT.”

She noted what also “stood out was the level of ownership for more accountability in Government. Seventy five percent of organisations had someone accountable for Green IT and in 50% of cases it was the CIO.”

She said that contrasted sharply with the situation in private enterprise where fewer than 10% of CIOs were held accountable for Green IT initiatives.

In terms of specific Green IT measures more than 90% of government agencies had replaced CRT monitors with flat screens, and were enthusiastically turning off lights in the data centre out of hours. However there was a reluctance to turn off PCs when not in use. “Our research indicates some resistance to this practice among some operations managers who prefer PCs not to be powered down so that they care easier to update and maintain,” according to the report.

Over time government agencies should get a much better idea of the impact of these sorts of initiatives with around two thirds of agencies reporting that they were measuring ICT’s environmental impact.

O’Flynn said that the company hoped to repeat the survey in a year’s time to “see how this translates into action in the next 12 months,” and that the company might in the future extend its Green IT survey to State and Territory government agencies.