AIIA CEO Ian Birks is calling on ICT businesses and the Federal Government to focus on environmental sustainability.

According to IT research firm Gartner, the ICT industry globally produces around 2 per cent of total carbon emissions –- as much as the airline industry.

Birks said that the ICT industry had only recently become aware of its role in climate change.

“It’s probably only in the past three to five years that environmental sustainability has become such a strong issue that it’s really had a direct and positive impact on the design and creation of ICT solutions,” said Birks.

Change started at the lowest levels, with individual devices becoming more environmentally friendly.

“When one looks at a current generation notebook PC, it’s somewhere in the order of 17 times more energy efficient than a desktop from a couple of years ago.”

Higher up in the data chain, changes were being made on a company-wide scale.

“Strategies like virtualisation, consolidation of servers and PCs are very much in tune with the ‘green IT’ agenda.”

These changes are a result of government regulations on carbon footprint reporting, said Birks.

For the first time, this financial year large organisations will need to report their environmental impact alongside financial, governance and compliance data.

At the AIIA’s recent media roundtable, sustainability officers from ANZ Bank and Foster’s said they took a 'very direct' approach to green procurement of IT.

“Reducing their carbon footprint is in the key KPIs for their organisation, and that’s cascading down the organisation from the CEO down to the CIO and all the people within the IT area, who are directly applying that need for change,” Birks said in summary.