20 Oct 2008

Firms advised to appoint green IT officer

Businesses could boost both their organisational efficiency and environmental credentials by appointing a green IT officer, it has been suggested.

According to Anthony Velte, an industry expert writing in his blog at ITworld, an officer solely responsible for green IT issues would better coordinate an organisation's separate departments when it comes to reducing their carbon footprint.

By having strong relationships with department heads and helping to improving the firm's environmental credentials, a chief green IT officer (CGO) could also engage with diverse shareholders and discover new revenue opportunities, Mr Velte argued.

Businesses leaders have adopted new environmentally-friendly technologies like virtualisation but have then struggled to find time to continue the further green IT work that is needed, he said.

"You can install better clients, address your storage network, and continue to tweak your data centre. A CGO’s job will be figuring out what to do next," Mr Velte wrote.

Firms can save money by streamlining material usage and reducing energy consumption through green IT, Mr Velte and Robert Elsenpeter argue in their latest book, entitled Green IT: Reduce Your Information System's Environmental Impact While Adding to the Bottom Line.