The greening of AsiaPac IT (9-Aug-07)

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The greening of AsiaPac IT (9-Aug-07)

IT organisations in Asia-Pacific are not expected to make significant progress in becoming green unless there is broad, enterprise-wide commitment, says Hydrasight. By the end of 2008, more than 10% of large AP organisations – primarily consumer-facing and high-profile corporations and some governments – will announce their intent to go green. Companies will include environmental clauses in their supplier contracts, but Hydrasight does not expect strict enforcement of these policies.

Text of Article

Michael Warrilow, Director, Hydrasight John Brand, Research Director, Hydrasight

Published: 9th August 2007

Hydrasight observes a generally increasing awareness, in both corporate and government organisations, in regard to the need for improved commitment to social obligation beyond general 'compliance' requirements. Specifically, we note that organisations are increasingly being pressured by constituents, customers, and staff to become more 'environmentally friendly'. The challenges for IT Organisations (ITO) however in their efforts to ‘go green' will be considerable. Moreover, we do not expect ITOs in Asia Pacific to make significant progress with the (near impossible) challenge of becoming green unless part of a broader, enterprise-wide commitment.

In essence, we believe any fundamental effort to reduce the environmental impact of enterprise IT will not succeed without considerable change in both the ITO's internal perception and, most importantly, sufficient ongoing commitment from the business. As an example, even though Hydrasight research shows that server virtualisation is currently perceived as providing environmental benefits, the reduced power and cooling costs are currently considered to be of higher value by ITOs (even without the threats of proposed 'carbon taxes' or other mechanisms which might significantly inflate the price of energy).

While changing societal opinions will force a relatively rapid turnaround in IT environmental consciousness, we do not expect many ITOs to have the ability to drive significant short or medium term change without the commitment of the business. Ironically, this support will introduce significant new challenges in both IT supply and demand.

Before the end of 2008, we believe that more than 10% of large Asia Pacific organisations, primarily high-profile corporations and (some) governments, will announce their intent to ‘go green'. Such announcements will tend to be driven by external-facing drivers (e.g., good corporate ‘citizenship', public/societal demands). As such, they will have implications throughout the entire organisation—not just the ITO. Hydrasight believes these will generally begin with an almost-immediate drive and need for carbon neutrality. From the IT supply side, we believe this will require review and overhaul of data centre power/cooling and general office/desktop environments. On the IT demand side, we foresee potential increases and in some case, mandates, for the use of certain impact-reducing technologies (e.g., voice and video conferencing rather than travel associated with face-to-face meetings).

Hydrasight foresees that the move to ‘go green' will quickly extend to other aspects of the IT asset lifecycle, including:

• safe disposal of old IT assets (i.e., ‘environmentally friendly' treatment of toxic elements in IT hardware);
• introduction of corporate policy in regard to the purchase of less harmful assets;
• implementation of waste-reduction efforts (including reducing hardcopy output, automated shutdown of unused computing capacity etc).

By 2009, Hydrasight foresees significantly increased pressure being placed on IT suppliers, ranging from consumables through external service providers, to conform to newly-established corporate environmental policies and guidelines. Though not strictly enforced, organisations will incorporate environmental impact measures as part of their supplier relationship and contract management processes. By 2012, Hydrasight foresees the introduction of somewhat nugatory ‘green legislation' within multiple Asia Pacific nations, requiring documented compliance specifically in regard to disposal of obsolete technology and potentially carbon emissions. This will create additional administrative overhead for most, if not all, ITOs—particularly those operating in multiple legislative territories.

Although well-intentioned we believe most, if not all, environmental protection initiatives will be challenged by the limitations of current information technology (e.g., current manufacturing and operating requirements). As such, Hydrasight recommends ITOs within consumer-facing and/or high-profile organisations to prepare for the need to rapidly respond to enterprise-driven initiatives focused on corporate social responsibility including the need to ‘go green'.

Due to the enormity of the task, the immaturity of environmentally-friendly IT alternatives and current IT asset lifecycles, we believe this will be a near impossible challenge to meet—but one that will nonetheless be required in light of growing public and employee opinion.

• Source: IT-Director