IT needs green information

A lack of hard data may be limiting green IT policies

A lack of clear information is discouraging UK business from fully embracing green IT practices, say IT leaders.

The widespread adoption of eco-friendly computing policies is being disrupted by a lack of hard facts on the potential effects of such changes, according to Adrian Davey, head of IT at London Underground train operator Tube Lines.

“Because this is a new subject, there is not a huge amount of relevant data available,” said Davey.

“I don’t think that there are enough facts out there to say: ‘Here is the cost of a process, but this is what will happen if you change A to B.’ When we first started to look at the area a couple of years ago, we couldn’t measure what we were doing ­ and if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

As the IT industry and the wider business world faces up to the environmental challenge, the increased availability of relevant data will help other companies to get involved.

But patience is the key, said Davey.

“You can’t simply turn around and say: ‘Let’s go green.’ It takes time to develop the right culture, to change behaviour and get the right information,” he said.

In the meantime this absence of information may tempt businesses to bend the rules in terms of their approach to eco-friendly IT. Some companies are retroactively applying the “green label” to work that would have taken place anyway, said Mark Foulsham, head of IT at insurance firm esure.

“A lot of companies are implementing environmental-based projects, but these schemes are not necessarily being generated by purely environmental thinking,” he said.

“Virtualisation and good power management, for example, make sense whether or not they form part of an environmental objective.”

This approach is not inherently a bad thing, if the end result is positive, said Foulsham.

“It’s not a problem if you do include details of what the green improvement will be. Savings, green issues and process improvement will always be part of the agenda.”

Recent studies have produced conflicting reports on the way UK businesses are approaching the issue of environmentally-friendly computing.

More than three-quarters of chief information officers interviewed by Datamonitor analysts said that green operations were important, while 15 per cent rated it as their top priority. Yet a recent study conducted by supplier Bell Micro indicated that only eight per cent of organisations are fully implementing their green strategy, if they have one at all.