Cool IT. Google a Climate Laggard?

Alejandro Litovsky

October 30, 2009

Greenpeace has launched Cool IT Challenge, which ranks the executives of the major IT companies–including Google, Microsoft, IBM and Cisco–according to what their companies are doing to reduce carbon emissions.

The initiative exposes the gap between what the IT industry could do to fight climate change, and what they’re doing today. Every IT executive has a profile page that includes a list of actions one can take to help pressure them to act.

Greenpeace’s central theme is, however, a propositional one: The IT industry can be a pioneer of a new economy. They can make money, create new markets and generate new jobs while helping to stop runaway climate change. Their services and products could cut the world’s emissions by an estimated 15 percent when applied in industry, buildings, transport and power sectors.: A win-win for business and the planet.

Currently the IT industry’s carbon footprint is growing, and much of these green IT opportunities remain unrealized potential or lack the detailed studies to show how and where they can reduce overall emissions.