ICT Sustainability Global Benchmark Report

A drop of 2.2% in the global ICT Sustainability Index (ITSx) over the last year indicates that CIOs have made little headway implementing power saving measures in the computer systems. The figures are contained in the "ICT Sustainability: The Global Benchmark 2012 Report" was sponsored by Fujitsu and used a methodology developed by Connection Research and RMIT University. The USA did well (ITSx of 57.3) , compared to Australia with 50.1.

The report recommends that organizations should track their ICT energy use, however I suggest this will not lead directly to savings. As has been shows with domestic smart meters, the monitoring may simply cause frustration as energy saving primarily requires capital investment and so there is little to be gained from real time monitoring. I teach students of  my ICT Sustainability course to prepare back-of-the envelope estimates of energy use and then concentrate their efforts on convincing senior management of the need for changes in investment.