I found a nice summary about what Green IT means for a company here, on PAC Online website. As most of us are simply thinking about an efficient ‘low energy consumption’ IT system with reduced CO2 emission, the true benefit is elsewhere:
IT operations are responsible for generating a sizeable proportion of CO2 emissions on their own, generally accepted to be around 2% of the global total. Much of this can be significantly reduced through simple actions in the office and data centre. IT is an inherent part of economic development, though, and its use is growing rapidly, so it is unlikely that IT will reduce its carbon footprint in line with CO2 reduction targets.
However, and it’s a big however, there is another 98% of emissions that can be addressed and IT will be an essential part of meeting the challenge throughout business. Eventually every company will need to count carbon and look at processes and procedures from travel management to logistics for reductions. There will also be a variety of IT opportunities in consulting, energy monitoring and management, supporting new energy technology, climate change monitoring and helping companies minimise risk from climate change.
You can as well browse the newly born “Green IT review” blog from Pete Foster to know more on this exiting and innovative topic.