Strategies for Launching a Green IT Program

With the dawning of corporate social responsibility, CIOs have the opportunity to use green IT initiatives to move their business ahead of the competition in tight marketplaces. At the intersection of information technology management and sustainability, there is a significant opportunity not only to reduce operational costs but also to improve operations and gain an edge in the public eye. Green IT can positively impact an organization in a number of ways. There are three areas, strongly connected to your business’ success, where green IT has a great impact; thus, giving you the competitive edge:

Attraction and retention of talent

Talent is most businesses biggest asset. Good corporate responsibility is becoming increasingly important to job hunters when examining prospective employers, especially with younger workers.

Positive public relations

Corporate responsibility is increasingly a concern for consumers as well. Green initiatives display your company’s values and create customer loyalty.

Superior financial performance

The top reasons CIOs adopt green IT is because it drastically reduces operational costs. On average, green IT initiatives reduce businesses’ energy bills by 15 per cent. You can probably identify other ways green IT could give you a competitive edge.

To launch a green IT program for your company, three strategies should be adopted first:

Align your enterprise with experts

Marketing for ‘greener’ technology solutions has been in high gear for the past several months. To separate fact from fiction, team up with a consulting agency that is focused on staying ahead of the curve with technology and sustainability. An expert will recommend the best strategies and initiatives for your enterprise.

Measure once, improve quickly

A baseline and metrics are critical to the short- and long-term success of your green IT program. An assessment will provide you with industry benchmarks and valuable data about your current operations. This data will enable you to prove the business case, set goals, effectively engage employees, measure the impact of improvements, and ensure you can demonstrate results. What should you be measuring? As the field of green IT is relatively new, there is still much discussion about the appropriate key performance indicators. We recommend a combination of policy-based metrics, statistics, and energy consumption.

Set the direction for green IT

As with many IT projects, the beneficiaries of green information technology initiatives are diverse. Working with your CFO, COO, and human resources executive will ensure you have a comprehensive direction for IT that recognizes opportunities across the entire organization.