IT and Communications Emit As Much CO2 As Aircraft

The global information and communications technology (ICT) industry accounts for approximately 2 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a figure equivalent to aviation, according to a new estimate by Gartner.

Gartner's estimate of the 2 percent of global CO2 emissions that ICT is responsible for includes the in-use phase of PCs, servers, cooling, fixed and mobile telephony, local area network (LAN), office telecommunications and printers. Gartner has also included an estimate of the embodied (that used in design, manufacture and distribution) energy in large-volume devices, namely PCs and cell phones. It also included all commercial and governmental IT and telecommunications infrastructure worldwide, but not consumer electronics other than cell phones and PCs.

Until now, few organizations were concerned about power costs and CO2 emissions. Although there is still a significant range of views and levels of awareness around the world and across industries, there is no doubt about the increased awareness of climate change. Intense media coverage has contributed to making "environmentalists" out of millions of people worldwide, which is beginning to affect consumer and business buying decisions. The issue is no longer about whether the enterprise needs to care, and more about the risk associated with doing nothing.

"During the next five years, increasing financial, environmental, legislative and risk-related pressures will force IT organizations to get 'greener'; that is to say, more environmentally sustainable," said Simon Mingay, research vice president, Gartner. "When enough buyers start demanding it and we get beyond the superficial, being 'less bad' will no longer be anywhere near acceptable enough. That point will be reached in 2007 and 2008 for some geographies, particularly Europe, with other countries and regions taking longer."

According to Gartner, the ICT industry needs to gain a better understanding of the full life cycle of ICT products and services, and innovate to reduce environmental impact. This does not currently happen because of the lack of a commercial or legislative need to do so. However, Gartner anticipates that buyers will ask more detailed questions about life cycle assessments during the next three years.

"Vendors are being forced to gain a better understanding of the life cycle due to new legislation and directives in countries and regions worldwide, as well as an increasing interest from clients in life cycle assessment," said Mr. Mingay. "The areas for innovation to reduce CO2 emissions are in the reduction of the materiality, energy consumption and use of hazardous substances throughout the life cycle, in addition to increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of recycling and the use of recycled materials."

IT organizations, on the other hand, need to start by familiarizing themselves with existing enterprise environmental objectives and corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies.

"Few IT management teams are aware of their enterprise's CSR and environmental policies, and they have not mapped out the implications for their own activities," said Mr. Mingay. "They need to decide whether to take a proactive response, a measured response following the market and legislation, or a passive approach that just meets legal requirements. The roles, responsibilities and programs will be very different for each."

"'Going green' is no longer the reserve of a minority 'doing the right thing'; it?s becoming an essential activity for all IT leaders," conlcuded Mr. Mingay."

Posted to the site on 26th April 2007