Green IT Barometer: European Organizations and the Business Imperatives of Deploying a Green and Sustainable IT Strategy - IDC

While IT organizations have been focused on ensuring that the technology being used is "green," they have been far less involved in providing the IT tools and services needed to support a company's overall green initiative. If leveraged appropriately, IT can be pivotal to the success of a company's sustainability and green efforts. Communication tools such as teleconferencing and collaborative solutions can limit or even remove the need to travel. Databases obviously provide the basis to collect data on a company's energy consumption and carbon emissions, providing a starting point to make improvements. Supply chain management systems can include decision support for profitable proximity, where profit includes a green aspect. Analytics study exposure related to asset portfolio or service fleet optimization. Procurement and supplier relationship management applications can help evaluate criteria related to recycle friendly materials, processes or packaging.