- Green IT - Moving Beyond the 2% Solution
25 Mar 08 | Position Papers
Over the last 18 months, the topic of Green IT has rapidly emerged, both in the media and on our clients’ agenda. When we began researching this issue early in 2007, our goals were to develop a holistic perspective that encompassed the key environmental dimensions of the IT business, to identify the most important Green IT challenges and opportunities, and to assess current business strategies and practices. The result is this initial Position Paper, which presents our overall point of view, and sets the stage for additional workbook and case study projects to be conducted in 2008 and beyond.
The need for a broad perspective has proved especially important in this project. To fully understand the implications of Green IT, we had to go beyond our traditional focus on enterprise IT usage, and consider the energy-intensive processes used in IT hardware manufacturing as well as the energy-saving value of IT to the wider economy. Indeed, the most fundamental finding of this project is that the rapid obsolescence implicit in Moore’s Law is inherently environmentally unfriendly, and that this places a special burden on our industry to use IT to further the greater environmental good.
We have found that much of the current Green IT emphasis is misplaced. It focuses almost exclusively on data centres and PC power management, which together account for only about 2 percent of overall energy usage. While more attention must be paid to the considerable energy used in IT manufacturing, it is the huge potential energy savings that IT can bring to the wider economy that will create the most important business opportunities. Hence the title of this paper: Green IT – Moving Beyond the 2% Solution.
View video of David Moschella discussing this report. Click Here
- Global Business Collaboration: Where Culture, Technology, and Innovation Meet
11 May 09 | Single Topic Reports
The Who, How and Where of business collaboration are changing. Much of the literature of collaboration has concentrated on the dynamics within a single organization, typically within a single geography. Today, the work of large enterprises increasingly involves many organizations, often scattered across the globe. The LEF and others have long noted how vertical integration is giving way to a horizontal, networked business model in which firms specialize in their ‘core’ areas and collaborate with other specialists for non-core functions.
Over time, social networking software will contribute to improve collaboration, but the IT team must learn to collaborate as well. Increasingly, business value will be created by people with double deep skills – that is, skilled in both their business role and in the relevant IT. The most important thing IT can do for these new tech-smart employees is to help them move forward.
This report will appeal not only to CIOs but also anyone interested in business transformation from senior HR professionals to business leaders. It will help you develop a greater awareness of business collaboration and in creating improved ways of working.
View video - introduction to Global Business Collaboration
Further information
If you would like to understand this topic further and its implications for your organization, contact your Account Representative.
- 2007 Green IT Study Tour Report
30 Jul 08 | Single Topic Reports
Green IT: New Competencies for 21st Century IT Leaders
'Green IT' is the use of computing resources in an ecologically efficient way
The Leading Edge Forum Study Tours always aim to explore what is happening at the leading edge. Back in 2000, we went to Japan to investigate the 3G mobile phone and found that even organizations like NTT DoCoMo R&D had neither briefing programmes nor people to manage them. Similarly in 2007, all the companies we visited in California told us that it was the first time they had been asked to present complete briefings on Green IT. When we went back to Japan in 2005 we found formal programmes handling lots of technology tourists. Green IT will undoubtedly follow the same path.
- Green IT - Moving Beyond the 2% Solution
29 Jul 08 | Presentation
Even if all of the world’s data centres and personal computers were unplugged today, total world energy usage would fall by just 2%. Nevertheless, virtually all of today’s extensive coverage of ‘Green IT’ has been about the need to build more energy efficient data centres and use more power conscious PCs. Recent research from The Leading Edge Forum argues that the Green IT debate has largely missed two much more significant environmental stories – the enormous amount of energy that goes into manufacturing many hi-tech products, and IT’s potential to reduce energy usage across the wider economy.
In this web conference, David Moschella will present recent LEF research findings into the real Green IT opportunities, while providing a model for companies to use to develop a holistic business/IT environmental strategy.
See event: Green IT - Moving Beyond the 2% Solution (29 July 2008)
- From Green to Gold
12 Jun 08 | Presentation
Businesses of all sorts have begun to focus on the importance of folding environmental thinking into strategy. From climate change to water shortages to energy conservation, pollution control and natural resource management issues now require careful management. Part of the challenge is to develop clear indicators and goals and establish a more data-driven approach to the business-environment interface. In this regard, IT managers have a leading role to play in helping companies both manage environmental costs and risks but also find ways to tap emerging green markets, connect with stakeholders, and build an environmental dimension into corporate brands. In this opening session, Dan will clarify the issues and spell out the steps that every company needs to take.
See event: Green IT - Moving Beyond the 2% Solution (12 June 2008)
- Green IT – The Role of Consumerization and Web 2.0
12 Jun 08 | Presentation
In this presentation, Doug will discuss how new consumerized and Web 2.0 technologies can help develop and deploy some of the systems that we will need. Particular emphasis will be given to the role of new capabilities, such as mashups, social software, collaboration, virtualization, and cloud computing in building a holistic approach to Green.
We may not be far off from a time when you will be expected to post your personal carbon footprint on your Facebook page.
See event: Green IT - Moving Beyond the 2% Solution (12 June 2008)
- Green IT - Facing the Downside of Moore's Law
12 Jun 08 | Presentation
Over the last year or so, the topic of Green IT has been given a great deal of media attention. Yet our research shows that the current emphasis on data center power consumption and more efficient personal computers has been too narrow. It is the constant improvement and rapid obsolescence of IT hardware that stems from Moore’s Law that is the real environmental challenge, and it is the use of IT to save energy in the wider economy that is the greatest opportunity. In this session, David will provide a holistic view of the IT industry eco-system and its environmental implications.
See event: Green IT - Moving Beyond the 2% Solution (12 June 2008)
- Green IT: Moving Beyond the 2% Solution
19 May 08 | Presentation
The LEF Executive Programme has been working with Yale Professor Dan Esty, author of Green to Gold, to develop a holistic view of the challenges and opportunities of this new Corporate Social Responsibility frontier. In reviewing data centre case studies with Dan’s team, we realized that even if we could wave a magic wand and reduce computer power use to zero, we would have successfully dealt with only 2% of the problem.
In this presentation, Doug will review the findings from our Green IT study tour, discuss our recent position paper on Green IT, and suggest how firms should proceed in dealing with this global issue.
See event: Thriving in a Multi-Polar World – Strategies for the Globalization of IT (19 May 2008)
- Findings from the 2007 Study Tour - Green IT - New Competencies for 21st Century IT Leaders Feb 08
28 Feb 08 | Presentation
For the 2007 Study Tour, we set ourselves a significant ambition – to get a holistic view of the multiple ways that IT could help improve both the environment and the bottom line. Just as large enterprises have used sophisticated IT systems to meet their security, privacy and Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, so will they need to take a holistic, information-based approach to managing their organization’s changing environmental footprint. This will require an ongoing programme that optimizes the firm’s entire production and consumption life-cycle, encompassing issues such as power usage, supply- and demand-chain efficiency, disposals and recycling, office design, travel, employee cooperation, regulatory compliance, and even brand management.
To cover this broad spectrum of issues, we visited a wide variety of organizations including Pacific Gas & Electric, Coburn Ventures, Amazon, VMware, Sun Microsystems, Intel Capital, JackBe, Crossbow, SWsoft, Cymbet, OrganicARCHITECT, City of San Francisco Environment Department, APC, Dell, Cisco, Adobe, and HP.
This web conference discussed what we heard and how these new issues provide new opportunities for IT to demonstrate leadership.
See event: Findings from the 2007 Study Tour - Green IT - New Competencies for 21st Century IT Leaders
- 2007 Green IT Study Tour Report
2 Jan 08 | Study Tour Reports
Green IT: New Competencies for 21st Century IT Leaders
'Green IT' is the use of computing resources in an ecologically efficient way
The Leading Edge Forum Study Tours always aim to explore what is happening at the leading edge. Back in 2000, we went to Japan to investigate the 3G mobile phone and found that even organizations like NTT DoCoMo R&D had neither briefing programmes nor people to manage them. Similarly in 2007, all the companies we visited in California told us that it was the first time they had been asked to present complete briefings on Green IT. When we went back to Japan in 2005 we found formal programmes handling lots of technology tourists. Green IT will undoubtedly follow the same path.