For those sceptics among us, you may be thinking this whole Green IT thing is some type of brain spasm by an entire technology community - one of the usual ones in IT where at the end of another year we get there and say... "well - actually that prediction didn't come off so we'll forget about that one - thank jeeps for that - I've got enough work to do!"
Well if you do think like that, I'm afraid I have bad news for you on the Green IT front - it's not going away any time soon. But it's not all bad - it may just be that over time 'Green IT' will just become 'built-in' to the way we do things in IT...
OK - a couple of examples to backup my theory:
- Not just IT are focussed on greening the world - people like insurance companies are getting mighty frighty in their tighties. Before Microsoft I worked with a number of insurance companies, and over the past few years there has been broad industry increase in their concern over the environment. They have annual reports that outline how their businesses are reducing energy consumption; they attend, sponsor and speak at environmental events; and they talk in the press about being socially responsible. Yeah some of it might be great marketing, but I also think there is serious concern there.
- The Australian Government (and other world governments around the world) are taking this seriously - OK so there may not be a whole lot of legislation around sustainable IT at the moment however it's coming baby! We just signed the Kyoto Protocol. In June this year an interim report will be released around a carbon emissions trading scheme for Australia and already there is concern businesses won't be able to meet the reporting requirements (Hello, IT!).
- People who don't usually take this seriously are - SO before I talk about this one, let me qualify that I grew up on a farm, my grandparents and many uncles and aunts are farmers so I am not just spouting broad, unsupervised opinion. HOWEVER - farmers pretty much do things exactly as they have been done before - it's tradition. The environment is of concern for crops and ensuring the cash cows get fed (so to speak), however farmers do tend to be sceptical of "greenie" issues - simply because in the past these dreadlocked tactics have generally threatened their very livelihood! So, when farmers start climate change control groups, you know its serious.
So, given this broad change in opinion and policy, me thinks this one is here to stay folks...although like I said, I think a lot of the concern areas will just become part of our natural processes e.g. computers will be built with low energy consumption, battery life will improve (this innovation has been moving along a separate tangent for a number of years anyway), e-waste recycling will become the norm, people will use technology to reduce travel and data centers will invest in carbon emissions schemes and virtualisation...
...There is no need to be afraid, my darlings, step into the green light and let it wash over you.... ;-)
