The IT path could always be greener

Merron's statement is welcome, but something must come of it

Cabinet Office minister Gillian Merron is challenging the government and its IT suppliers to improve the carbon footprint of public sector technology.

She said that discussions between the big IT companies and their £12bn-a-year customer will not be limited to energy efficiency and streamlined working practices, but will also include consideration of the environmental impact of current hardware design and manufacturing procedures.

The development is notable in two ways.

First, with respect to the green agenda, there is much to be said for the public sector setting an example about what can be achieved, and how.

And while pressure groups, perhaps rightly, call for stringent carbon emissions legislation and the restructuring of the energy sector, there is still a place for more short-term measures. The combination of the government’s scale and profile makes it a significant and effective agenda-setter. For this the Cabinet Office is to be commended ­ with the proviso that if the first report takes until next year, an initiative with such short-term impact to recommend it suddenly seems less convincing.

The second interesting implication of Merron’s statement is its reflection on the status of the government IT community.

To the cynical, the fact that the announcement was made at the European Commission’s Lisbon e-government conference could be seen as a ploy to puff
the importance of UK public sector IT’s proactive management. But that in itself is a change from the past. And the scheme is also genuinely indicative of an
increasingly consistent cross-government agenda, fostered at least in part by the Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council.

The first advances were the sector-wide licence deals brokered by the Office of Government Commerce. Now the CIO Council will take the same principle to the next stage ­ using its members’ combined purchasing power to push agreed policy priorities.

Merron’s statement last week is welcome. All that remains is for something to come of it.