[LINK] Australian Government Agencies doing okay with Green ICT

[Tom Worthington]

The "Green ICT: The State of the Nation" report, released by Fujitsu 
yesterday, has noted positive results for Australian federal government 
agencies implementation of sustainability measures to reduce carbon 
emissions from computers 
<https://www-s.fujitsu.com/au/whitepapers/greenict_sotn_form.html>.

This was reported by Alison O'Flynn, Head of Sustainability at Fujitsu 
speaking at the Sustainability Plus Technology Forum in Sydney this 
morning. One reason given for the agencies doing well is the effect of 
the Gershon Report.

The research the report is based on was done in conjunction with 
Connection Research, in association with the World Wildlife Fund. It 
follows an earlier report on private sector green ICT strategies which 
was far less positive: GREEN IT: The Convenient Truth.

Unfortunately, Fujitsu have produced their reports as a large (5.4Mbyte) 
hard to read and hard to get PDF file. Fujitsu should consider providing 
their report as a set of small, easy to read, mobile compatible web 
pages. This would reduce the carbon emissions cause by the report by at 
least 90%. For those who do not want to cause excessive greenhouse gas 
emissions which downloading the full report would cause, here is an excerpt:

---
     The idea of intergenerational responsibility and balancing the 
three elements of sustainability (economic, social and environmental) 
present both challenges and opportunities for the way we live today. 
With rapid population growth and the increasing impact of climate 
change, we need to act now.

     Greenhouse gas emissions from the ICT sector as a proportion of 
global total emissions are forecast to increase from 2% in 2009 to 6% by 
2020. Over the
     same period the number of personal computers is expected to more 
than treble, from 1.2 billion to 4 billion. The ICT industry has an 
important leadership role to play - both in mitigating its own impacts 
and in exploiting its technology to enable emissions reductions in many 
other industries and business processes.

     The Gershon Report recommended the Australian Government develop a 
Whole of Government Sustainability ICT Plan1 to manage and reduce the 
environmental impact of the government’s ICT activities. This plan, 
developed by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the 
Arts (DEWHA) in conjunction with the Department of Finance and 
Deregulation, is effective from early 2010.

     In late 2008 Fujitsu Australia conducted research to understand how 
ICT departments in the Australian private sector were responding to the 
emerging carbon priced economy. Fujitsu Australia published these 
findings in a report titled Green IT: The
     Convenient Truth 2.

     In September 2009 Fujitsu Australia commissioned further research 
to understand how Australian Government agencies are preparing for the 
emerging sustainable ICT aspirations and goals being set by the 
Australian Government.

     The research found that Australian Government ICT managers are 
personally more concerned about climate change than the Australian 
population generally, and also more concerned than ICT managers in other 
sectors. In fact, the survey
     identified no climate change deniers at all. This may be because of 
an increased awareness of the issues raised in the Gershon report and 
the subsequent high profile of sustainability in government generally.

     The research clearly shows that Australian Government ICT managers 
have done far more in the measurement of ICTs power consumption, and in 
ensuring accountability for Green ICT, than their counterparts in the 
private sector.

     This would indicate Australian Government ICT managers are 
demonstrating Green ICT leadership, both as a result of their agencies’ 
overall commitment to a green strategy and because of their awareness of 
the ICTs important role in reducing overall carbon emissions. ...

     From: Green ICT: The State of the Nation, A Report on How 
Australian Government Agencies are Responding to the Transition to a Low 
Carbon Economy, Fujitsu, 29 September 2009 
<https://www-s.fujitsu.com/au/whitepapers/greenict_sotn_form.html>


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 02 61255694
Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/people.php?StaffID=140274