Industry Leaders Promote Green IT Agenda at UN Event

The United Nations today hosted executives from Cisco, Dell, EMC and Symantec to discuss ways that political and industry leaders can come together to reduce global warming while promoting economic and social development around the world.

Sarbuland Kahn, who heads the secretariat of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development, said objectives for reducing climate change by 2012 that were set in 1992 won’t be achieved, it is more critical than ever to focus on the goals set for 2050.

"The greatest challenge we have is to mobilize all the key stakeholders to align themselves for this agenda," said Kahn.

Kahn was followed to the podium by a parade of IT industry leaders, all of whom struck the same chord: while the IT industry itself is responsible for less than 3 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, IT products and services can impact 15 percent of emissions worldwide.
 
Among the ideas discussed: the use of cloud computing to make more efficient use of computing and storage resources while spreading the cost of power and cooling across fewer numbers of data centers; connecting IT systems to building management systems to use electricity more effectively by, for instance, using employee key cards to power electricity up or down as they enter or leave their offices for the day; or making use of information lifecycle management to archive dormant data in storage units that consume less power.

Kathrin Winkler, EMC's chief sustainability officer, said that in an information-based economy, IT and business need to align more closely to help "extract more value from intangibles rather than natural resources that can't be renewed."

In general, IT executives noted that intelligent use of IT can help reduce traffic congestion and improve power management and health care delivery. And David Hsieh, vice president of emerging technologies at Cisco, touted the use of teleconferencing and other collaboration services to help reduce the need for travel.

Finally, IT executives reminded attendees that many of these technologies are not only appropriate to smaller companies, but can benefit them more than large companies.

"This is something that can disproportionately help small and medium-sized businesses," said Jeff Nick, CTO of EMC.