Kumar Parakala | August 19, 2008
ALMOST 12 months to the day since the release of our Green ICT Policy and industry audit, the ACS is calling for more action to address the environmental challenges arising from global warming.
Despite the high level of public interest in issues of environmental sustainability, the hi-tech sector remains one of the few industries to have audited and quantified the carbon emissions it produces.This has been important, but there is still much to do.
That was recognised by Professor Ross Garnaut in his draft report for the Garnaut Climate Change Review, commissioned by the federal Government.
Professor Garnaut called for a "massive increase" in Australia's investment in low-emission technology research, development and commercialisation, to $3 billion a year.
"Australia has the opportunity to play a leadership role in funding and co-ordinating a major global effort to develop and deploy carbon capture and storage technologies, and to transfer those technologies to developing countries."
And not just developing countries. Australia's current environmental challenges represent a tremendous opportunity to create sustainable technologies that will not only improve our environmental situation, but which we can market to other developed nations for mutual benefit.
These solutions could come from anywhere.
One very inspiring example has been the international success of a team of young Australian ICT students who won the prestigious Imagine Cup 2008, a global Software Design invitational event conducted in Paris last month, with an environmental technology system.
The Australian team has developed a system to help conserve water in agricultural applications, which account for a component of water usage in our country.
Its Smart Operational Agricultural toolKit (SOAK) is an integrated software and hardware platform that aims to help farmers achieve sustainable use of their land through the integrated use of environmental sensing, rich visual front-ends to display information, and a subsystem that controls farm equipment such as sprinkler systems.
The students have attracted a lot of attention for their system. The Victorian Farmers Federation and the National Party both interested in helping them to take it to market.
It is critical we start now to invest the time and energy necessary to explore possibilities and create systems.
The ACS has identified a number of strategies that businesses can apply to reduce their carbon footprint, ranging from server and desktop virtualisation through to integrated telephony, automated power control and sleep mode on workstations, to reduce energy costs.
The society has also called on the federal Government to improve the management of e-waste through a manufacturer take-back policy and extending the star rating system for energy efficiency to encompass a wide array of technology.
With the Federal National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act coming into force last month in the lead up to the launch of Australia's own Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme in 2010, Australia's largest corporations are now operating under new rules about reporting carbon emissions.
This new legislation has enormous implications for the entire business community.
This involves not just 1000 or so Australian companies that produce more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon pollution each year, as compulsory liable parties of the NGER scheme, but their suppliers and business partners will also have a role to play in supporting them in this process.
Beyond that, other businesses will also be affected, as the real cost of carbon emissions is passed on through increased pricing for goods and services.
Just last month, ICT leaders in Queensland joined forces to launch a new Green IT Industry Special Interest Group.
With the increased focus on carbon accounting and becoming carbon-neutral, the industry is keen to provide clear direction to support ICT professionals and their employers. At the same time, questions are being raised about the effectiveness of some of these offset programs.
Most companies seeking to become carbon-neutral do so by arranging for the planting of trees to generate the amount of oxygen required to offset the carbon they produce, but trees do not reach the necessary maturity until they are eight years old, and most are harvested for wood well before then.
The ACS would like the Government to investigate the legitimacy of the various schemes offering companies a way to become carbon neutral and provide the business community with greater certainty that these approaches are really contributing to a solution.
Kumar Parakala is ACS national president and global chief operating officer of KPMG's IT advisory practice.