Recent PostsGreen ICT remains immature in South Africa and the lack of company adoption will contribute to South Africa’s failure to meet its commitments at Copenhagen, namely a 34% emission reduction below business as usual by 2020 and 42% by 2025.
Business remains apathetic to embracing green business and ICT organisations are stuck in an antiquated mind-set of uptime and response, rather than adapting their services using efficiency metrics and reducing carbon emissions.
In a study published by the IDC in December 2009, South Africa ranked a diabolical 19 out of 20 G20 nations for its ability to use ICT to reduce CO2 emissions. This put us on a level footing with Indonesia in joint last position.
The study showed a projected reduction opportunity of 101.4 million tonnes of CO2e annually through the adoption of technology by 2020, against a baseline of 342 million tonnes, ranking South Africa 13th on the global list of emitters.
Some opportunities identified included:
· Smart metering which can reduce emissions associated with power by 8%,
· Energy management systems which can reduce the emissions associated with buildings by up to 18%,
· Intelligent motor controllers that can reduce emissions associated with industry by up to 6%,
· Supply chain and logistics optimisation offering a 10% emissions reduction in the transport sector, and
· Telecommuting which can reduce transport emissions by as much as 2%
The reality we face in South Africa is that the effects of climate change will impact us significantly and yet as business leaders and IT professionals, we are not putting sustainability as the number one priority on our business agenda.
The industry globally is now shifting to what is known as Green IT 2.0, namely the application of technology in reducing emissions within business operations. In South Africa, we have not even scratched the surface of Green IT 1.0, namely getting ICT’s house in order and reducing the energy consumption within ICT infrastructure.
Trying to understand this is a complex matter and South African’s in general have got a strong affiliation with their environment. The main stumbling blocks that sustainableIT has encountered are a lack of metrics and accountability within ICT, as well as a dogmatic approach to delivering services the same way, year after year. Globally the business landscape has migrated from measuring uptime to measuring efficiency, in South Africa we have not.
The IDC report highlights much of the opportunity for ICT to take the lead within business around emissions reduction activities. Strong and innovative leaders will embrace this opportunity, laggards will remain simply laggards.
Tags: Add new tag, Energy Saving, green ICT, green IT, green office
In a business environment of very tight margins, are there direct profit motivations for going Green IT, considering the actual costs of implementing Green solutions vs the measurable monetary benefits in the short to medium term?
There is no doubt that Green IT initiatives directly contribute to the bottom line, largely as a result of energy savings in many instances. With energy rates going up, PC power management solutions such as NightWatchman pay for themselves within 12 months and are measurable. Video conferencing solutions also have very agressive paybacks, significantly reducing cost and co2 emissions. These are just two examples. Green IT is about efficiency and any efficiency gains in business reduce cost and hence improve profitability.