IT Strategy

Green IT Strategy

March 6, 2008 by Raj Sheelvant

A McKinsey Quarterly survey finds that executives view climate change issues as important for their companies, seeing both opportunity and risk. 60 percent of global executives view climate change as important to consider within their companies’ overall strategy. Further, nearly 70 percent see it as an important consideration for managing corporate reputation and brands.

Since IT strategy aligns with and enables Business Strategy, CIOs and other IT executive should be proactive in enabling businesses to achieve their Branding Strategy. As I mentioned in my previous blog Green IT – Hype or Relevant Strategy? we have reached a tipping point where majority of consumers are concerned of impact of global warming. Having a ‘green’ IT department would be a great PR victory and firms can tout their leadership role in trying to “reduce the footprint”.

Not only that, according to Ten Strategic Technologies to watch in 2008, Green IT is one of the ‘Strategic Technology’ for the year 2008. Article states that “Strategic technologies, as defined by Gartner, are technologies that could disrupt IT or business in the next 18 to 36 months. They may require a large dollar investment and could cripple your organization if adopted too late.” Its not only customer demand that is going to drive IT departments to go ‘green’, but high energy cost along with regulatory needs could make it impossible for IT department to run ‘business as usual’.

CIOs are getting the message. In the article Green IT mind shift taking hold larger percentage of IT Executives see the urgency in going ‘green’. The CIO needs to be on board but IT cannot implement Green IT strategy without the cooperation and collaboration with other departments. According to CIO Insight article, Green IT – Buzzword or Strategy?, IT organization should draft an action plan that includes an overall vision, strategy and specific goals. IT leaders must spearhead a multidisciplinary effort that would involve representatives from all levels of the organization, including end users, business managers and executives.

Its very clear IT Executives cannot afford NOT to implement Green IT Strategy.

Green IT Strategy guidelines according to the article Green IT – Buzzword or Strategy?

• Define an environmental policy, identifying and prioritizing the issues the organization wants to address. Do this within the context of the enterprise’s broader environmental and corporate social responsibility policies.

• Have the IT organization be responsible for the energy efficiency of the data center and IT equipment.

• Make the data center a priority, but understand the green IT strategy must extend beyond that.

• Create an environmental performance dashboard based on the enterprise’s and IT organization’s environmental policy.

• Use existing and emerging energy management tools, and address behavioral issues to decrease the power consumption of IT-related equipment.

Source: “10 Key Elements of a ‘Green IT’ Strategy,” Gartner Inc., Dec. 7, 2007

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1. Green IT – Hype or Relevant Strategy?
2. IBM’s ‘Smarter’ Growth Strategy – From Big Blue to Big Green?
3. Green IT Expo Report
4. Google and Microsoft’s Data Center Strategy
5. Role of Virtualization in IT Strategy