IT Sustainability for Business Advantage

CHAPTER 3

Operate IT Sustainably

Introduction

Operating IT sustainably should be the first order of business for a new IT sustainability program. IT operations often represent a significant portion of a company’s environmental footprint. There are many opportunities to reduce IT’s portion, and many of these opportunities will also result in significant cost savings. Moreover, the credibility that IT gains by addressing its own footprint will enable it to partner with other functions on reducing theirs.

Sometimes referred to as Green IT, this part of the strategy addresses the three primary environmental costs of operating IT:

•CO₂ emissions associated with energy use

•Environmentally harmful materials in IT gear including heavy metals, rare ...