Techies must help save the planet

IT departments need to do more to help businesses cut carbon emissions and improve their environmental credentials, according to 'green IT' crusaders.

Companies must be more aware of their role in society, said Mike King, chief executive of green charity The Environment Council: "We only have one planet. There's not another one coming later if we use this one up. Currently business operates as if they have two and a half planets but they don't."

King said businesses should think about how they can work with customers, suppliers and local community to reduce their environmental impact.

This could be good for the balance sheet as well as the countryside. He predicted that within 10 years even small businesses will be trading carbon allowances, with greener companies able to sell on their carbon credits to companies that are more wasteful.

Because of this, IT organisations need to be more eco-aware, both in terms of cutting emissions and helping companies develop more environmentally friendly products, King said. "In the same way we think about IT making us more efficient, think about how it can make us more green," he told silicon.com.

David Bellamy, veteran environmentalist and patron of tree-planting charity the Tree Appeal, said IT departments have their part to play in reducing carbon emissions.

He said: "The one thing they could do is have a gadget on every computer that turns it off when they go [home] because that would save enough energy to power Birmingham. If that was done with every gadget I could retire."

Both men were speaking at the launch of a carbon-neutral initiative by document management and imaging company Version One. The company hopes to offset its carbon emissions by planting trees for companies that buy its software and services, with plans to plant 1,000 broad-leaf trees per year.

Version One director Tony Bray said the company will also try to reduce its environmental impact by encouraging car sharing, use of greener forms of transport, videoconferencing and recycling.