Sustainability has become a significant issue for every enterprise, and is particularly pertinent for IT management, which must focus on supporting the requirements of the organisation in this area.
This is one of the key conclusions of the report: "Sustainable IT Provision - Meeting the Challenge of Corporate, Social and Environmental Responsibility", which has just been published by Butler Group.
According to the report, the challenges of meeting these responsibilities have brought into sharp focus the need for IT to be more proactive, along with including the required capabilities into IT strategy and governance procedures.
"New opportunities continue to emerge, which enable organisations to work in a more environmentally-friendly way. Yet many enterprises are failing to act and have not yet recognised the fact that business-as-usual is no longer an option," says Mark Blowers, senior research analyst and co-author of the study.
"Two ways in which the IT organisation can help to improve the situation are by enabling measurement of the exposure to climate change, and by increasing the efficiency of IT operations, which comprise such an important part of the overall foundations for the organisation," he advises.
Those taking an interest in environmental aspects of life may have already come across the mantra of the 'Three Rs': reduce, re-use and recycle, he says. Butler Group has added a fourth for the IT manager - re-engineer - which encompasses the approaches and technologies that need some investment in resources to bring to fruition, but can be a significant factor in the IT department's contribution to sustainability.
It is important to take a holistic approach, which encompasses not only equipment energy usage, but product, software and building design, Blowers says.
"One reason IT departments have been slow to react is because IT management often does not have energy expenditure in their budget. Power costs are usually tied to the property portfolio, so energy savings do not translate directly to budget savings for IT. In addition, we are sometimes guilty of focusing on the effects (such as improving cooling systems) rather than addressing the root causes, by looking at things that actually reduce the amount of code processed in the first place (such as software design)."
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