In previous Carbon Columns, we have outlined the benefits of increased technology use in lowering your business’ carbon footprint. With the support of Carbon Down, the team from the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) has released the second instalment of its GreenIT eBook- ‘Greening your business through technology’.

This book supplements the first eBook, and focuses on addressing the needs of small to medium sized businesses. The GreenIT eBook Version 2 highlights why GreenIT is important from an industry capability perspective, gives an overview of a generic GreenIT roadmap an organisation may choose to follow, and then highlights through 16 different case studies how organisations have benefited by implementing a number of these GreenIT initiatives. 

The eBook brings to light the indirect contribution of technology to sustainability, championing the transformational role of information communication technologies in a low-arbon economy by looking at ways to assist other industries to meet the challenge of lowering their overall environmental footprint. Through activities such as optimising fleet management, more intelligent utility grids, electronic bills and payments, video-conferencing and improved building management systems, the eBook shows the significant opportunity to implement new technologies that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the business sector.

Similar to the introduction of any new business practice, the eBook encourages organisations to ‘start small’, focusing on quick wins or ‘the low-hanging sustainability fruit’. Short term success will then allow a sustainability program to expand throughout a business, gaining momentum and management buy-in. The formation of a ‘Green Team’ throughout this process is essential to provide leadership as ongoing initiatives involve more and more stakeholders.

Further insights, hints and tips from the eBook include:

• Energy efficiency will account for 55 per cent of Australia’s cuts in greenhouse gases over the next 40 years.
• A recent calculation of the IT footprint within Australia indicated that the IT Industry alone accounts for nearly 2.7 per cent of Australia’s total carbon emission.
• Power is not always well managed within Australian data centres. Some 65 per cent of IT departments rarely see the power bill nor do they have an idea of how much electricity they are consuming.
• A simple first step medium-sized organisations can take is to start measuring their data centre’s power utilisation effectiveness (PUE).
• More than 50 per cent of executives consider sustainability ‘very’ or ‘extremely important’ in a wide range of areas (including new product development, reputation building and overall corporate strategy).

To access AIIA’s Green IT eBook, ‘Greening your business through technology’, visit http://www.carboncompass.com.au/solution/greening-your-business-through-technology.

For more information regarding the cost of sustainability to your business, register for the FREE Grow Me The Money-hosted breakfast ‘The Economics of Sustainability’, held at VECCI on Thursday 27 October.  Find out more about cost-effective sustainability actions that can save your business money and reduce carbon emissions. 

To register, simply call VECCI Sustainability on (03) 8662 5196, or email your details to SustainabilityEvents@vecci.org.au