Projects: Green ICT

At CeBIT 2009, the Green IT Village featured at last year’s event will become the Green IT World – reflecting the growing significance of information and communications technology (ICT) for sustainable business. Green ICT not only helps protect the environment, it also cut costs. Small wonder, then, that it is playing an increasingly important role in executives’ efforts to make their enterprises more eco-friendly. When it comes to reducing global CO2 emissions, solutions such as video conferencing, telematics services, and solutions that support electric-vehicle infrastructures will play a significant part.

Based in Baierbrunn, near Munich, drom fragrances has 43 sites worldwide. Thanks to the TelePresence video-conferencing solution from T Systems, the company is keeping down the cost of presenting products to potential buyers. Employees no longer have to take their wares on the road, as customers can now try out samples and pass judgment at their PCs. “Video conferencing enables us to slash traveling expenses,” says general manager Ferdinand Storp. Moreover, by cutting down on flights, drom fragrances has also reduced its carbon footprint. According to Datamonitor analyst Aphrodite Brinsmead, today’s high-performance solutions will fuel more wide-spread adoption of virtual meetings. And ICTICT

Information and Communication Technology. These two terms began to be combined in the 1980s to emphasize the growing convergence between the two technologies.

can do much more to help companies meet the ever-tougher challenges of sustainability.

For some time now, global players such as automaker Daimler have been enlisting their suppliers, as well as their own employees, to the cause of sustainability – and they expect nothing less than the very highest standards. As enterprises strive to become more green, ICT systems will become an important weapon in their arsenal. According to management consultants A.T. Kearney, they could even be a major contributor to saving the climate: a recent study concluded that ICT is key to lowering enterprises’ overall greenhouse emissions. While the lion’s share of CO2 is generated by companies’ core business, ICT can help CIOs to meet their targets when it comes to greening their organizations. “IT itself is a relatively small part of the carbon emissions problem, but will be a huge part of the solution,” says Peter Foster, founder of the analysts’ initiative The Green ITIT (= Information Technology)

Information Technology (IT) is a collective term for information and data processing and the hardware and software used for this purpose. 

Report.

Read more about green ICT in the print edition of Best Practice.