WWF slams IT industry over slow reaction to climate change

Research carried out by Gartner and supported by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says that despite positive moves by most large IT equipment and service suppliers to minimise carbon emissions, progress has been disappointingly slow. This is despite methods for reducing energy such as building more environmentally friendly facilities, using cloud applications and reducing travel through the use of IT conferencing seemingly being high on the IT agenda. This news is not surprising given the apparent costs of overhauling a multi-national organisation to fall in line with the current expectation about becoming green. This prevalent attitude does however highlight that many businesses are failing to see the bigger picture in terms of how greener working could help reduce costs and offer other financial gains.


Dennis Pamlin, global policy advisor at WWF said that those businesses who are embracing the low carbon economy are already reaping benefits in terms of falling costs and improved image. The environmental issue is likely to keep growing, bringing with it the potential for incentives such as tax breaks for those businesses having the smallest impact on the environment. We only need to refer to the ever growing road tax levy for high polluting personal vehicles to realise this is a trend that is likely to grow. “The current financial crisis provides an interesting short-term opportunity for ICT providers to position themselves as low carbon leaders that deliver services that both save money and carbon emissions, especially compared with many other solutions where there is a choice between money or the environment,” says Pamlin.


The report highlighted that many companies have no economic policy or any targets to reduce emissions; the most basic tenets of creating a low carbon business. The message is that businesses of all sizes should look at their operations and begin assessing where savings could be made. Energy efficiency means financial efficiency in today’s economy and with this issue set to continue intensifying, all organisations need to treat this with urgency.