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King III to talk green IT

Paul Vecchiatto
By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent
Cape Town, 21 Aug 2008

An expanded chapter on IT and, specifically the greening of IT, will be part of the latest King Report on Corporate Governance (King III), says Lindsey Engelbrecht, CEO of the Institute of Directors.

Speaking yesterday at a forum hosted by telecommunications utility Neotel, Englebrecht said the latest of the series of reports by former High Court judge Mervyn King would focus more on the concept of corporate citizenship.

The latest report has not been finalised and will only be available for public comment early next year.

"We are now more worried about how a company makes its money rather than just spending it," she noted.

Engelbrecht said the report will have a heavy emphasis on reputation as it is considered to be a company's largest asset, but is where it carries its biggest risk.

"The whole emphasis is around safeguarding intangible assets," she said.

Engelbrecht refused to give any further details on the report.

The previous reports, released in 1994 and 2002, had little about the role of corporate governance with regard to IT, and nothing on the technology's impact on the environment.

Pleasant surprise

Simon Mingay, Gartner research VP, said in reaction to the news that he was "pleasantly surprised".

"It is good to hear that the whole issue of green IT is receiving board-level attention in SA."

Mingay addressed Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2008, in Cape Town, this week, and deals specifically with the impact of IT on the environment.

He said the fact that King III is talking about green IT is a result of two factors - the first being the discussions around the issue at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this year. The second is that the "uppermost senior levels of enterprises are engaging on the issue and are worried about it going forward".

Mingay said IT's impact on the environment follows the 2% versus 98% rule. This means IT itself only accounts for 2% of the world's carbon emissions, but it can be used effectively to help control the vast bulk of emissions.

"However, we have found that 2% is coming under increased scrutiny, although neither the US nor the European Union's latest round of legislation and research into global warming specifically targets the IT sector."

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