IT industry as environmentally evil as airlines

The airline industry is the worst culprit when it comes to carbon emissions right? Wrong, according to a survey by analyst Gartner, the IT industry is just as bad – responsible for two percent of global emissions. We’re not sure how the numbr crunchers at Gartner came up with the results but the prognosis is that it's time for the IT crowd to stop being part of the problem and become part of the solution – or something snappy like that. "The ICT industry needs to gain a better understanding of the full life cycle of ICT products and services, and innovate to reduce environmental impact", is Gartner's pithy recommendation.

“’Going green’ is no longer the reserve of a minority ‘doing the right thing’; it’s becoming an essential activity for all IT leaders,” the analysts continue.

The steps to green heaven include:

• Start measuring power consumption

• Consume fewer servers and printers by increasing utilisation – virtualise servers

• Stop over-provisioning; improve capacity planning

• Improve the efficiency of cooling

• Turn power management on, use a low power state or turn equipment off after hours

• Extend the life of assets by reusing within the enterprise and externally

• Ensure and validate the correct disposition of all electronic equipment

• Analyze all waste