The movement toward green and sustainable technology and business practices has been building for a while, fueled — pardon the pun — by a unique combination of self-interest, altruism, and plain, old business sense. This movement has had its diversions — as I discussed in May 2008 in "Shades of Green" — and the global recession has certainly removed any temptation to go green or sustainable for the pure goodness of doing so.
But it has become clear that, even as we lurch toward an unknown financial future, what former Vice President Dick Cheney ridiculed as a "personal virtue" is becoming a business imperative. Indeed, green and sustainable practices are the next step in the lean, just-in-time movement, which has produced efficiency and eliminated waste. So if you've already gone lean, going green is a logical next step, rather than a radical departure from business as usual.
I would argue that ground zero in the fight for global ecological salvation is in your manufacturing plants and your executive suites. And that doesn't include the IT department. According to SAP, which launched a major green/sustainability initiative in March, only 2% of the global carbon emissions of its customers come from their IT operations. The rest comes from manufacturing and transportation.
And that "rest" is a rather large number. SAP says its customers produce 5 gigatons of carbon emissions each year, roughly equivalent to one-sixth of the world's total emissions. Ouch. Or should I say yuck?