This is the information age. Whether watching a missed “Office” episode on our laptops in a local coffee shop, “yelping” a restaurant on our Blackberry’s as we walk by it, updating our Facebook statuses just before we rappel from a Himalayan cliff, or just checking our e-mail while in the waiting room at the dentist’s office, we are all able to access information from virtually anywhere. The bad news? The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector creates 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The good news is that its services and products could cut the world’s emissions by an estimated 15% when applied in industry, buildings, transport and power sectors (Greenpeace.org).
With our planet on the brink of runaway climate change, Greenpeace created a website, called The Cool IT Challenge, that exposes the gap between what the IT industry could do to fight climate change, and what they’re doing today.
This key sector claimed that it could enable emissions reductions of 7.8 Gt CO2 in 2020, equal to 15% of business as usual emissions. In order to keep these companies’ growing footprints in check and to monitor the delivery of this 10-year potential, the Cool IT Challenge created a scorecard for the CEO’s of the largest IT companies in the world, showing how they each rate on climate leadership. What are they scored on? They are each scored on Public Climate Speech, Political Advocacy, Climate Solutions, Personal Emissions Target, and Renewable Energy Use.
Toshiba's Atsutoshi Nishida is alone, at the bottom...with a score of 2/100.
So, how are they doing? Overall, Greenpeace doesn’t look on them kindly. The first assessment was this past May, showing the IT industry’s inadequate leadership in tackling climate change.
The two CEO’s with the highest scores are IBM’s Samuel Palmisano and Sun Microsystems’ Jonathan Schwartz, both with 29 points out of the 100 possible. At the bottom of the list…Toshiba’s Atsutoshi Nishida. He scored 2. A 29 out of 100 and a 2 out of 100 may be 27 points apart, but all of these CEO’s have one thing in common. Their scores would all be F’s in an 8th grade history class.
To view each CEO’s entire scorecard, check out Greenpeace’s Cool IT Challenge. While last year, the ITC industry saw the emergence of some low-carbon leaders, the overall picture shows an industry that has been sleepwalking toward a low-emissions economy. This assessment is a great way to put the pressure on worldwide IT CEO’s, as they should be taking a more active role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, both in their own operations and by lobbying politicians. After all, this is the information age.
Tags: Carbon Emissions, carbon neutral, Green Technology, renewable energy