The Green IT Curse

Hello responsible technologist!

Halloween timing makes it funny but I have been wanting to share with you for a while my favorite expression during consulting missions and on stage: the Green IT curse.

#The Green IT Curse in Organizations

When we talk about sustainability in organizations, the conversation often turns to energy efficiency, reducing waste and greenhouse gas emissions (hopefully water consumption and abiotic resources as well) across operations and main support functions. But when it comes to reducing the environmental footprint of the IT functions, so-called  “Green IT” (or “Sustainable IT”), the enthusiasm often quickly fades among the sustainability teams and the C-levels. It's almost as if the moment you propose making digital technology more sustainable, a curse is cast upon the organization petrifying the good-willing tech teams. As highlighted in the 2023 ‘State of Green Software’ survey conducted by the GSF, Green Software is a priority for software practitioners, but still lacks leadership support. Indeed, for many C-levels, Green IT seems like a minor initiative that doesn't carry the same weight as other sustainability measures. 

# IT Footprint: The Ghost in the Room

Shall we blame the CSR team and the top management for this? As often in sustainability, the answer is “it’s complicated”. The reality is, for most organizations, IT is not the main culprit of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or other environmental impacts. 

Let’s focus on GHG emissions for the rest of our exorcism exercise. Sure, the energy required to keep the information system running contributes to the environmental footprint, but in many cases, it’s a small slice of the pie. In most organizations, the major emissions come from Scope 3 activities - the indirect emissions associated with supply chains, transportation, product life cycles, and other external factors. Scope 3 includes, for example, the manufacturing of purchased goods, the emissions from employees commuting to work, or the products customers use after purchase. These are the real elephants in the room, overshadowing the relatively modest footprint that IT operations leave behind.

Even in tech giants like the GAFAM, which have enormous digital infrastructure, IT direct emissions are not the biggest offender. A case in point is Meta, reporting a Scope 3 covering 99% of its GHG emissions in 2023! Even doing analytical carbon accounting reincorporating the embedded carbon of devices, servers, network, as well as the carbon footprint of cloud and SaaS services into a cross-scope carbon IT footprint doesn't put the CIO or CTO as the main perpetrator in big Tech organizations. 

This disconnection between IT’s modest environmental role within organizations and the broader sustainability conversation creates the first layer of the Green IT curse: it just doesn’t seem that impactful. Why should a business care about making IT green when the real environmental impact is elsewhere?

 
# The IT Industry’s Massive Footprint: little streams make big rivers

If Green IT seems cursed at the organizational level, it’s because its real significance lies elsewhere - at the industry level. Individually, a company’s IT emissions might be modest, but put together, the IT industry is a massive contributor to GHG emissions and environmental degradation.

Let’s not forget that the tech industry is responsible for around 3-6% of global emissions (depending on the studies and the scope), a figure comparable to the global road freight. And it’s not just about carbon. The environmental impact of the IT sector includes resource depletion, due to the metals used in devices and e-waste, and the energy used to run billions of digital devices and equipment across the world.

The tech industry’s voracious appetite for more power and resources cannot be ignored either. The trend clearly shows an ever increasing environmental footprint of the tech industry as illustrated by the surge in GHG emissions reported across all main players in 2024 - fueled mostly by the AI boom.  

So, the second layer of the Green IT curse is that little streams make big rivers. Because these little rivers are everywhere. Not that many companies operate a truck or a delivery van but all of them use IT solutions. And there is a great deal of chance that the sector in which the organization operates has actually a smaller environmental footprint than the IT sector itself. 

# The lost in limbo business case for Green IT 

The third layer of the Green IT curse is, in many non-Tech organizations, a weak business case. Sure, GreenOps achievements tend to be aligned with FinOps savings. But why bother labeling them “Green” if they are only driven by financial savings? Plus, in organizations with limited employees on the IT payroll and an average use of IT devices services, the impact might not be that big nor the savings that high. 

The expected benefits in terms of brand recognition, either commercial or employer, can also be a double-edged sword. Advertising Green IT achievements in an organization with a small IT component is a recipe for a public relations disaster, starting with greenwashing accusations. 

# Breaking the Curse: the Planet Case for Green IT

To break the Green IT curse, their advocates need to shift their mindset. The conversation around IT and sustainability should be reframed. Green IT champions should start by acknowledging the hard truth: its limited impact on both sustainability reporting and financial bottom line at organization level in the short-term (with the exception of pure Tech players). To counter against the curse,they should then brew up the right potion with 3 particular ingredients: 

1. the ecosystem horcruxImplementing Green IT is not about an organization getting more sustainable (except for Tech companies) but greening the IT industry at large. Like lawyers allocating pro-bono time to make the legal ecosystem work, IT practitioners should be granted pro-bono time to make the IT ecosystem work, which includes not destroying the place we live. The IT sector is no stranger with this ecosystem logic, open-source communities providing the backbone of more than 80% of the code found on the web today. And the benefits for tech teams of being involved in a vivid  eco-system don’t need to be proven anymore. 

2. the people horcrux
The case goes beyond employer branding, albeit the recent Boavizta’s conviction study pointed out that: “a Digital Sustainability approach is primarily driven by internal demand”. In an organization with ambitious sustainability goals - or just regulatory pressure - is telling all IT employees that biking to work and eating less red meat at the cantine is all they can do, a smart move? As Jamie Beck Alexander says “No matter where we work, every job is a climate job now”, so dismissing the contribution of IT employees can give rise to feelings of not being valued, …leading to all the usual suspects with demotivated workers.

3. the anticipation horcrux
With forthcoming stricter regulations on reporting and - hopefully - on actual reduction of environmental impact, every little help will help to remain compliant. However the true silver bullet with Green IT does not lie in future compliance but in its legitimacy to ask the hard questions about “Tech” which is nowadays the almighty magical solution to all issues in an organization - and in our society at large. Bringing its environmental impact to the table forces us to assess its benefits in a more specific way. Green IT then becomes a powerful wand against the next wave of hype - shall we talk again about Facebook’s metaverse? Ultimately, Green IT enables us to strengthen the resiliency of the information system and the overall organization by helping us separate the wheat from the chaff. 

Actually, on top of an obvious Planet case, we might eventually have a business case for Green IT… and be free from the dreaded curse.

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