Green IT: Corporate Strategies

Recent reports from Gartner, Forrester, and McKinsey highlight the costs of and savings from implementing green-tech corporate strategies

by Reena Jana

At the recent World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, 20 sessions focused on environmental issues. On Jan. 24 a group of top guns at leading technology companies, including Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates, Dell (DELL) founder and CEO Michael Dell, Cisco Systems (CSCO) CEO John Chambers, and Intel (INTC) Chairman Craig Barrett, met to talk about the possibility of coordinating their efforts to pursue more sustainable practices. Then, on Feb. 5, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) announced it had surpassed its goals for recycling e-waste: Globally, it recycled nearly 250 million pounds of hardware and print cartridges in 2007—a 50% increase over the previous year. And it announced a new goal: to reuse 2 billion pounds of products by the end of 2010.

These recent examples of public steps by major corporations—surely in part marketing moves to seem committed to taking action in terms of 'green' practices and policies—align with some of the key points in three recent reports, published by leading research and management consulting firms Forrester Research, Gartner, and McKinsey. [See also The Real Costs of Saving the Planet, (BusinessWeek.com, 12/4/07).]

The reports highlight the costs and savings possible from implementing green strategies— and ultimately reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Containing a blend of ideas, warnings, and analyses, the reports are aimed at technology companies (and, in the case of the McKinsey report, governmental, private, and other groups) looking to develop more environmentally friendly policies—both within their own organizations and for their customers. Each document has its merits.

What Is Green IT?

The Gartner report, "Green IT: The New Industry Shock Wave," by analyst Simon Mingay, doesn't provide hard data but instead offers definitions and prescriptions that might prove helpful for companies looking to create a green IT strategy.

First, the report attempts to articulate just what "green IT" means. Mingay acknowledges there is no precise definition, before continuing with the jargon-rich, "optimal use of information and communication technology (ICT) for managing the environmental sustainability of enterprise operations and the supply chain, as well as that of its products, services, and resources, throughout their life cycles."

The report goes on to define the key words in Gartner's definition, from "optimal" to "life cycle." While long-winded, the details—too long to go into here—could aid executives looking to understand some of the buzzwords of the eco-friendly movement.

Finding Appropriate and Practical Actions

Gartner's attention to detail, while helpful, can also get head-spinningly complex. The real value of the 10-page report is its list of practical tactics for greening a company's IT program. These include the development of environmental metrics, which Gartner recommends should focus on more than measuring a corporation's carbon footprint or making PR statements about ambitions to go carbon-neutral by a certain date, à la Google (GOOG) or Dell.