Your green IT project: Who should play a role?

I guess you could safely say we have entered the "Green IT 2.0" zone.

Now that most people understand what you mean when you use that term in a sentence, a large majority of businesses have either adopted OR are about to adopt OR are considering Green IT strategies for their operation. (By the way, I usually refer to green IT very generically myself; for some reason, the term begs to be capitalized in this particular blog entry.)

In one of its regular white papers on the topic, Forrester Research reports that 25 percent of businesses that participate in its Global Green IT Online Survey are actively acting on some sort of Green IT plan. Another 61 percent are either creating or considering a Green IT strategy.

What's interesting, anecdotally, is who is becoming involved, according to Forrester. Up to this time, inquiries about strategy ideas have come mainly from IT professionals and CIOs, the research firm reports, but enterprise architects, application portfolio managers and business process professionals are increasingly becoming involved. I'm surprised Forrester doesn't say facilities managers, as well, because this role is rapidly changing.

Anyway, I think the fact that business process managers are getting involved, because many Green IT strategies (one BIG example is paperless transactions of all sorts) could have a huge productivity and profit impact. They are actually more about Sustainable Business than Green IT.

One last thought on this.

Apparently, many of you are seeking metrics to get started: more than half of all inquiries made of Forrester have been for benchmark data. But I would urge you not to let this hang you up. As I wrote in an earlier blog, Deloitte's IT organization has made a huge Green IT impact without actually measuring its starting footprint. Or, at least, waiting around for a definitive number.

I'm not saying to ignore this altogether, but don't stress out about benchmark data when you can take more discreet meaningful steps.

I also believe, seriously, that Green IT should be the concern of everyone in your organization but SOMEONE needs to be responsible, at least to get the ball in motion.