20th February 2008

IT departments need to be proactive in building sustainability into company IT strategy and governance procedures, according to speakers at the forthcoming European Sustainable IT Forum: SustainIT 2008, which is taking place in London on the 22nd and 23rd April 2008. This practical user forum will set out clear thinking as to how IT professionals can adopt responsible ICT strategies within their organisations that will reduce their power bills, increase corporate responsibility and deliver significant business process benefits through more intelligent deployment of ICT solutions.

"IT management has an opportunity to take the lead by being proactive in supporting the sustainability objectives of the organisation¨, says Alan Roger, Senior Research Analyst, Butler Group, who will present key findings from their new report Sustainable IT Provisions at the forum.

International keynote speaker Bill Olson from Motorola comments ¨Information technology can greatly aid or hinder an organization’s efforts to compete in the global marketplace. Sustainable innovation holds the key to unlocking the hidden potential of IT for sustaining and growing the enterprise through its focus on achieving triple bottom line impacts: people, planet and profit”.

Fellow presenter Paulo De Sa, VP of IT Services, Unilever, remarked “Green IT is the catalyst for changing the way we view IT in the context of mankind’s total environmental impact; Sustainable IT is what we get once we have taken action; have optimized and aligned the way we run IT and use IT to neutralize mankind’s total environmental impact.

Bill and Paulo will be joined at the forum with representatives from financial services, manufacturing, transport and government – plus two members of the European Commission Paulo Bertoldi DG JRC and Peter Johnson DG INF SO. The form will also feature a special address from EPEAT / Green Electronic Council.

There has been much discussion or hype surrounding Green IT over the last year – particularly from the vendor community. One of the key concerns from the industry during the research was that “we cannot buy our way out of this” and that a more responsible approach to IT management is needed. Steve Pikett, Head of IT, Rothschild who will present on Demand Management at the forum commented ¨There is a need for industry to look beyond ‘Green IT’ and examine the root causes of IT inefficiency (planning, design, data retention policy, strategy, structure and use). We treat IT as an almost unlimited resource, storing far beyond the useful life of data, and operating at speeds far in excess of the real requirement, and we do it because we can, not because we need to.¨

This with view was echoed by fellow speaker Gary Hird, Technical Infrastructure Manager, John Lewis Partnership who remarked: "Responsible IT means considering the whole lifecycle for hardware and software, not just procurement. It means managing demand, not just ensuring an efficient supply. It means taking active and informed decisions, not just passively doing things the way they've always been done. And it means openly sharing lessons learned, at events like the European Sustainable IT Forum."

Developed with the support of the industry, SustainIT 2008 has been created to provide attendees with practical content, networking and benchmarking opportunities, so that they can leave with actionable solutions to their daily challenges.

www.greenpowerconferences.com/corporateclimateresponse/sustain_IT.html

Use to send this story to a colleague or to add it to your social web.