Australian ICT Carbon Emissions Audit

A study sponsored by the Australian Computer Society has shown that computers and telecommunications equipment in Australia generated 7.94Mt of carbon dioxide in 2005, 1.52% of national emissions. The ACS issued a Policy Statement for Green ICT, which includes suggestions on initiatives ICT professionals, government, consumers and ICT manufacturers can take to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions attributable to the use of ICT equipment.

The ACS recommended:

1. Extending the Energy Rating System to ICT equipment for domestic and commercial use
2. Innovative technologies to reduce power consumption
3. Carbon offsets to help offset the emissions being produced by ICT equipment used in the office
4. Virtualisation to replace servers
5. Disable screen savers and implement ‘sleep mode’ for inactive equipment.

See:

1. "ACS reveals ICT's Carbon Footprint - Calls for energy star rating for IT products as part of a green ICT industry policy", Media release, 16 August 2007
2. "Policy Statement on Green ICT", 16 August 2007
   
3. "Audit of Carbon Emissions resulting from ICT usage by Australian Business" , 16 August 2007, (ACS members only)

The ACS President will be talking about it Tuesday in the morning session at the Green CIO conference in Sydney. In the afternoon session I will be talking about ACS Green IT Group.