Travelling into work this morning I was neck and neck with a rather nice blue Ferrari convertible with camel leather. Neither of us were winning the race to get to work - we were in slow moving weekday traffic on the A34 heading towards central Manchester. “What a waste” I thought, the Ferrari driver couldn’t go any faster than anybody else, used more fuel and arguably had a more unwieldy vehicle for the journey. I’m sure both of us were late for work!   

When I did get there somebody passed me a recent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit sponsored by (IBM) which proclaimed that “IT and the environment was a new item on the CIO agenda.” This concurs with recent NCC research which revealed that whilst many IT folk were getting greener, most were at the very early stages and hadn’t actually done anything significantly “green.” Yet those that had, identified cost savings and environmental benefits. 

Rome can’t be built overnight, and changing behaviour and culture are significant barriers to overcome, but I urge IT leaders to get started on green now. Current technology is good enough to deploy effective video conferencing, and home working, both of which would cut congestion, CO2 emissions and improve everybody’s quality of life. 

Green IT is an opportunity for IT to rise to the challenge, and show business leadership - and we need you!  

Mike Dean