Corporate and Social Responsibility: Responsible IT
In the ten years between 1993 and 2002, businesses invested some $2,400billion dollars in ICT systems, doubling that cost when power and cooling is added. Today, no organisation can survive without technology, but, we have created an increasing appetite for power to keep information coursing through the veins of the global economy. The sustainability and cost of energy, to run ICT systems and to transport workers to and from their homes, has become a global concern. Can organisations be smarter in the way they deploy ICT systems, smarter in the way they use ICT to reduce their overall carbon footprint, and smarter in the way they portray themselves as a responsible ICT user?
This executive summary sets out how organisations can adopt a responsible ICT strategy that can simultaneously reduce power requirements and costs, change the culture of their organisation and its people to manage carbon more efficiently, and create an agile business that can compete in the global economy while acting as a responsible global citizen.