With Eskom threatening to hike electricity costs and international climate change regulation on the horizon, energy and environmental impacts have become central IT and business concerns.
Unless systematic changes are made to processes, resource management and organisational culture, local businesses may be left behind in an increasingly eco-aware society, say analysts.
According to Dr Brett Cohen from research and consulting firm The Green House, the increased focus on sustainability is being driven by various factors. “There's an opportunity to join the leading edge of the market; a genuine interest in the environment and wanting to make business more sustainable; and public pressure.”
As the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in Africa, SA may soon be forced to adopt legislation that will include carbon constraints. Water and environmental affairs minister Buyelwa Sonjica said on World Environment Day earlier this month that work on the country's policy framework for climate change is continuing, with a white paper on climate change set for 2010.
Tony Frost, CEO of Sirocco Strategic Management, says the government has the biggest role to play in implementing regulation, and should both discourage the buying of unsustainable products and provide incentives for using less energy and other resources.
“Ultimately, the state needs to take the lead because business needs are usually relatively short-term,” says Cohen. “Often opportunities aren't pursued because short-term gains are more important to shareholders.”
Companies see the costs and not the benefits. They don't understand the urgency of the situation.
Tony Frost, CEO, Sirocco Strategic Management
This may explain why many local organisations still haven't implemented sustainable policies. “Companies see the costs and not the benefits. They don't understand the urgency of the situation,” says Frost.
According to Cohen, there are also financial challenges, as establishing environmentally beneficial strategies can involve initial investments. “If you're looking at restructuring the entire business and greening the whole supply chain, for example, then it could require a significant financial investment.”
Tim James, owner and director of SustainableIT, an ICT consultancy specialising in carbon emission reduction, says companies pursuing profits at any cost, including using dirty energy, are operating from a narrow viewpoint.
“The usual excuse is: 'We have a responsibility to shareholders to make money,' but most sustainable policies reduce costs anyway.” He adds that rising consumer consciousness and the Y Generation becoming more economically active will result in people increasingly buying from more eco-friendly companies.
Pushing performance
However, as concerns rise, so have the number of technologies capable of helping companies reduce energy use and environmental impact. James says these include developments like virtualisation, which is 'greener' in the sense that it involves less hardware, power and cooling.
According to Mark Clarke, solutions architect at Green Computing, a division of open source solutions company Jumping Bean, hardware efficiency is another rising energy-saving IT strategy.
“Performance per watt is a term you will hear more and more in coming years. Many organisations are already shifting their focus from maximum performance to maximum performance per watt, and this will only become increasingly important.”
He adds that hardware manufacturers, especially chipmakers such as Intel and AMD, are working hard to reduce the energy needs of their processors. “Expect chip, video card and disc manufacturers to start marketing their products based on energy efficiency, not just performance.”
Another development gaining popularity, according to Clarke, is cloud computing - especially among small to medium-sized businesses. “They can now 'virtualise' their entire infrastructure using Google's or Amazon's service offerings, for example; leaving it to these corporates to implement virtualisation optimisations on their behalf.”
According to Clarke, businesses are starting to experiment with these technologies to see if they are comfortable trusting someone else with their data and infrastructure.
“What makes all of these green computing trends so powerful is that they are not only good for the environment, but they dramatically lower costs at the same time,” adds Clarke.
Face to (virtual) face
As travel can be a significant contributor to a company's overall carbon footprint, video conferencing technology has also been making progress in the green IT sphere.
Ray McGroarty, solutions marketing director of Polycom EMEA, a telepresence and video conferencing provider, says in businesses where professionals have to meet with counterparts on a daily basis, this technology can cut down on carbon-intensive long-haul air trips.
“It's become easier to make an impact in this way as the technology inhibitors that existed years ago have fallen away. The technology and networks needed to deliver pictures and voice are there, it's just a case of taking it and implementing it.”
According to McGroarty, “clever positioning of systems in an organisation is key. You have to target those that travel the most and make sure they are effectively trained and become familiar with the equipment. The aim is to make it as easy to use as booking a travel ticket.
“By introducing incentives like 'chair miles', where employees are rewarded for choosing to teleconference rather than travel, companies can balance the 'air miles' offered by airlines for frequent flying,” says McGroarty.
Clarke believes these developments will continue as the energy situation is particularly acute in SA. “With Eskom's promise to double the cost of energy in coming years and government threatening legislation around energy usage, it is no wonder that technologies such as virtualisation and video conferencing are receiving so much attention.”
James argues that organisations need to take climate change more seriously, as the issues are not going to go away. “Going forward, people need to realise it's a significant problem; but not an insurmountable one. We can manage carbon out of business.”
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