IT for Green
From Wiki for Sustainable IT
IT for Green is the use of digital technology to address environmental problems: energy management, logistics optimisation, precision agriculture, biodiversity monitoring, climate modelling.
It is the mirror image of Green IT: one reduces the impact of digital technology, the other puts digital technology to work reducing other impacts.
Condition of validity
An IT for Green project is only justified if the environmental gain exceeds the cost of the digital solution itself. That comparison is rarely produced.
Two effects further erode announced gains:
- the rebound effect, where the resource saved is reallocated elsewhere ;
- the windfall effect, where a digital solution is chosen although a change in organisation would have sufficed at lower cost.
