Putting things in perspective

While customers will generally pay lip service to environmental concerns, the harsh reality is that most businesses will not take action until they can see a bottom-line benefit or legislation dictates a particular behaviour.

Gartner analysts recently estimated that ICT-related carbon emissions accounted for 2 per cent of the problem globally. Ethan Group's Shadi Haddad said this number had given many CIOs some comfort that they were not a key contributor to the problem.

Although 2 per cent sounds like a small number, Dimension Data's Gerard Florian said it shouldn't be sniffed at and pointed out that this was equal to the impact caused by the aeronautics industry.

"We all think of the airlines as a major contributor but we are actually as much of a problem as all those planes we jump on," he said.

Cost is still a major hurdle in convincing businesses to take an environmental stand but Florian uses the analogy of security when he talks to customers. "The reality is that 10 years ago security wasn't such a hot topic but these days it is very real and you just factor it in. Does it give me anything? No, it doesn't. Is it just part of buying a ticket to the game and being responsible in business? Yes, it is," he said.

"You have to incur certain costs to ensure your business environment is secure. Anybody who goes and constructs a building knows they are going to have to cart a bunch of concrete and pay to dispose of that responsibly. When you put it in those terms people realise it is just part of doing business. They don't have to like it, but whether it is legislated or not they've just got to do it."

To establish the environment in his customers' minds, Oriel Technologies Rodney Haywood tells them each server they deploy is equivalent to three cars on the road or the loss of 55 native Australian trees.

"We ask them how many native trees they have in their suburb and how long they would have to travel to see 55 of them," he said. "That makes them realise the impact of the servers they have sitting there and that's how we get traction."

As well as driving server consolidation, largely through virtualisation, Haywood said Oriel was also considering the introduction of an optional $143 carbon offset for every server a customer buys.

IDC's Phillip Allen said the IT industry had a major role to play in reducing the environmental impact of technology. He said the amount of information being produced was increasing rapidly and, by 2010, forecasts suggest that printing all of the information on earth would create a stack of books that reached from here to the sun a dozen times.

"I think there's a role for the industry to play and it's not necessarily the government's responsibility to legislate. The IT industry has been selling all this kit in the first place and one of the simple things to do is help users consolidate. That's a simple way forward," he said.

"There's a responsibility for resellers to go out and engage customers on these topics. It's about how you can be a better business partner because the problem is only going to get worse."

Tongue-in-cheek, Datacom's Mark McWilliams noted that consolidation had done wonders for server sales. "The more we consolidate; the more servers we seem to sell," he said.