Green Your Network Blog

Given the frequent press releases and dramatic declarations by leading technology corporations, it might come as some surprise to learn that a recent study by Gartner and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) found that most could be doing a good deal more in the way of lowering their carbon footprint. According to the study, “the ICT industry overall has been slow to embrace the low carbon economy despite the tremendous opportunities that will be presented to the industry, such as smart buildings and grid applications and travel substitution.” This sort of corporate inertia is hardly surprising in our prevailing corporate climate, but it does cast a rather cynical light on the repeated assertions by technology companies that they are implementing various green initiatives driven by concern for the environment. While certain individuals within the corporate hierarchy no doubt have legitimate concern, overall one is forced to wonder if the grandstanding and green posturing is nothing more than a shrewd marketing scheme for the 21st century.

Gartner Executive being interviewed about the collaborative WWF Assessment for Low Carbon Leadership in ICT Industry

But first some good news. First of all, participation in the study was purely voluntary, and consent to be included represents good faith on the part of the subject companies who wished to be judged on their environmental consciousness. Of twenty-four leading corporations contacted, fifteen consented and each of these organizations deserves to be commended regardless of what the findings revealed. Moreover, Fujitsu, BT, HP and IBM all did well according to virtually all indicators including Environmental basics, supply chain basics, carbon basics, carbon delivery and carbon champions.

The salient detail that emerges to characterize all those companies which did not score as highly is that while producing carbon-friendly products for the market and touting their high-efficiency mainframes (where applicable) they think little or not at all about the overall environmental impact of their more extensive supply and manufacturing chain and executive travel practices. Most of these corporation inhabit hugely expensive state of the art headquarters facilities which, despite vast capital investments in structural and architectural elements do not implement state of the art energy conservation features on any meaningful level. When one considers that these are companies at the leading edge of technological innovation it is disappointing to learn that they are not more attentive to emerging trends in environmental awareness that have been adopted by many more “old fashioned” corporations.

Singled out for corrective attention was Google which, despite its trumpeting of a Green Data Center and concomitant “Commitment to Sustainable Computing” was found by the study to “not have an environmental policy.” As for the true villains, for the record, the following companies refused to be included in the Climate Change assessment: Accenture, Acer, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, EDS, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun and TCS. Feel free to go ahead and let them know how you feel about their indifference to your home planet.

Gartner’s press release is here