Apparently, it's women's month. Last weekend, most of the country celebrated Women's Day. There were the "Women in IT Forum" and the "Women in IT Awards". On Saturday night, TV screened an awards ceremony for women in business.
The IT industry used to be the space of geeky boys in dark rooms, but is increasingly becoming an "equal opportunity" sector. I remember my IT courses less than 10 years ago, when it was hard to make a mark among the boys who generally scorned my presence.
The influx of women in IT is a refreshing change.
I also suspect that women will, over the next 10 years, make an even greater contribution to the ICT sector, if yesterday's Green IT forum is anything to go by.
Girls want to know
At the registration for the event yesterday, it struck me that there were many more women attending the forum than is usual at ITWeb events.
What really got me thinking though is that the women stayed - where many of the men ducked out almost directly after the registration process. I do hope that round of golf was worth it, because the content of yesterday's event was really valuable.
I think it has something to do with women's nurturing nature that kept them glued to their seats at the Green IT forum. In fact, many not only seemed to care about the content, but wanted to action many of the recommendations made by the speakers.
After a long discussion with a couple of guys at the event, it became really clear that they either don't believe IT contributes to carbon emissions, or that, at the heart of it, they just don't care.
No worries
One of the guys I spoke to has decided that most of the discussions around environmental issues are all just hype: the sea levels aren't rising, resources like copper and tin are limitless, and IT will never have a significant impact on environmental change.
But the arguments made by the speakers, and the evidence they presented in the form of research, tell me otherwise. One speaker said we are using more resources than we can produce in any given year, and that this trend is only likely to worsen as more people become urbanised.
The IT industry produces more, or an equal amount, of carbon emissions as the airline industry - which has long been lambasted for its huge carbon footprint.
How is the IT industry getting off so lightly? Because most people pretend there is no effect, or the impact is not as radical as we believe. The attendee I had the discussion with quoted his own scientific "research" and real-life experiments, done in the 80s, but made no attempt to consider that a little goes a long way.
Green everything
The IT industry produces more, or an equal amount, of carbon emissions as the airline industry.
Candice Jones, journalist, ITWeb
And that's the crunch, isn't it? A little does really go a long way. I think women understand this better than most, since we have had to fight our way, one step at a time, through a male-dominated industry to make ourselves known.
One of the speakers asked the delegates who could be the champion of the IT industry when it came to campaigning for saving electricity. One suggestion was Mark Shuttleworth - but since Nasa is one of the biggest contributors of carbon emissions, I am leaning more towards any one of the women who sat in that auditorium.
When it comes to green IT, women also have an advantage. My last Marie Claire issue spoke about green flooring, how to save power at home and the best places to buy green furniture.
Women are being flooded with green messages and will in most cases take it to heart. Put that together with a female CIO and you have a winning formula for a green IT environment. I bet that over the next few years, the champions of green technology will be wearing a skirt (or power suit, depending on your preference).
Maybe the men are right, and it is all hype, but I am not inclined to want to find out in 10 years that we should have taken action now.
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