This is the third article in a series aimed at the non-technical reader to help demystify ICT for development. This month we explore the concept of “green” ICT. What does it mean in practical terms for us as citizens, businesses and government?

The "green" button on a computer keyboard.

The term “green” ICT refers to an ever expanding set of practices, technologies and policies aimed at reducing our environmental impact. “Green” ICT focuses on reducing this impact in two ways: (i) by lowering the environmental effect of the technology we create and use, and (ii) by using technology to enable the reduction of the environmental effect in other industries.

Direct Effects

Lowering the environmental impact of the technology we create and use, also known as the direct effects of ICT, is the most frequent objective of citizens, businesses and governments. In 2008, Gartner Research, a global ICT research firm calculated that ICTs are responsible for emitting 2% of the world’s carbon, putting the ICT industry on par with the airline industry.

The way in which ICTs are developed, manufactured, distributed, used and disposed of is being reconsidered to account for the multiple possible environmental impacts caused. ICTs impact includes: global warming, energy consumption, material toxicity, resource depletion, land use, water use, ozone layer depletion and even biodiversity.

Citizens, businesses and governments, as consumers of ICTs, play two roles in reducing the direct effects of ICT on the environment:

[1] We shape the ICT market. By purchasing ICTs from manufacturers and distributors that act responsibly towards the environment we encourage those manufacturers – we implicitly avoid rewarding other manufacturers who do not prioritise the environment in their business practices. Manufacturers that don’t act responsibly towards the environment will either go “green” or  go out of business.

[2] We can use ICTs in energy-efficient ways. We can:

• turn on the screensaver on our computer to turn the monitor off after a few minutes of inactivity;
• remove our phone and laptop power adapters from the wall socket when they are not charging our devices;
• use energy efficient LCD monitors, instead of older CRT monitors;
• look for better “Energy Star” rated appliances in our homes and offices;
• use thin-client technology to share out a single computer to many users at the one time;
• use cloud-based applications; and
• ‘time share’ computers using USB flash drives and virtualization allowing a single computer to be used in turn by a limitless number of users.

Purchasing from environmentally responsible manufacturers and distributers of ICTs and using the ICTs we already own in energy efficient ways, will not only reduce the direct effects of ICTs on the environment but will also save us money through lower energy bills. The savings should not be underestimated – one government department in the Pacific conducted an energy audit of their ICT and discovered that reducing the energy used by its ICT could save enough to increase their existing workforce by 20% with the savings made from managing their ICT energy consumption better!

Enabling Effects

The direct effects of ICT on the environment are substantial. However, using ICT to lower the environmental impact of other industries, the enabling effects of ICT, is where the largest reductions in environmental impact are to be made. Intelligent transport systems can help reduce traffic congestion and road miles. Using videoconferencing can help to avoid the need for physical travel. Online collaborative tools can enable less physical travel as well as better decision making and a wider sharing of best and good practices. Intelligent energy networks can balance energy in the network so it is not wasted and can also facilitate remote meter reading. Smart buildings can be more energy and thermally efficient. Smart supply chains can also lead to less physical transportation and storage of goods. There are numerous environmental challenges to which ICT can be applied.

Applying ICT to these existing energy problems is not something to be done in the future, it can and is being done today. It is well underway in fact and businesses and governments the world over are already embracing the solutions. Home working projects, funded by Microsoft Corporation, are helping government agencies to reduce the amount of travel undertaken by its employees. UPS, a global parcel delivery service, reduces its fuel consumption by planning routes so that trucks do not have to turn across traffic – this may sound trivial until it is considered that the company has 88,000 vehicles and delivers some 15 million parcels every day. Siemens, a global electrical electronics and electrical engineering firm, has devised algorithms to control building ventilation, heating and cooling and applies these techniques to hospitals, schools, banks and industrial sites all over the world. Tandberg, a video conferencing equipment company, recently implemented videoconferencing for 200 of Vodafone’s offices around the world to reduce employee travel. Finally, video-on-demand is set to replace physical DVDs and CDs which alone would save 120,000 tonnes of carbon in the EU alone.

Apart from the reduction in environmental impact, organisations around the globe are reducing their costs by thinking “green” and the savings can be substantial. It turns out that reducing the amount of resources one uses also reduces expenses and improves global competitiveness. Organisations around the globe are embracing new ways of ‘doing more with less’ – less energy, less materials, less travel, less cost and less environmental impact.

Powering a mobile phone using D-cell batteries in Papua New Guinea.

Conclusion

As citizens, businesses and government departments we can utilise different ICTs to help us minimise our environmental impact – whilst also saving money. Whether it is turning on our computer screensavers, removing our phone chargers from the wall socket when not in use, installing low-power light bulbs in the office or just printing fewer documents each day; it is within our power to save our natural environment and critical for our natural environment to save power and other resources.

This is an adaptation of an article written for the Provincial Government of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Indonesia by ICTD Corporation. ICTD Corporation specialises in the provision of consulting & advisory services for the design, planning, implementation and review of e-government initiatives and field research in developmental ‘leapfrogging’ in the area of ICTs. The author, Tony Willenberg (tony.willenberg@ictd.com), is managing director of ICTD Corporation and based in Sydney, Australia.