DOI: 10.5176/978-981-08-7240-3_G-30
Authors: Christos Christodoulides and Chris Sadler
Abstract:
It is not only due to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that our planet faces such problems as unstable climate change and other environmental depredations. Nevertheless, ICT does have some impact - through the pollution caused by hardware manufacture and disposal and through lifetime energy consumption. ICT also has a positive role to play via such green technologies as cloud computing and digital distribution.
In developed countries, with mature ICT infrastructures, there have been some substantial moves to apply green conservation principles, but in developing countries there is potentially a conflict between ‘catching up’ fast at any environmental cost or trying to implement more environmental methodologies and technologies from the start. Cyprus is a small developing nation with a steady economy, promising development prospects and a largely well-educated population. As such Cyprus seems like a good place to find out which way this conflict is likely to go.
To explore this proposition, a pilot questionnaire, designed to discover the organizational awareness and application of a number of appropriate issues (for example, virtualization, e-waste management), was administered to IT personnel in a selection of Cypriot organizations of differing sizes and sectors. As a result a picture has been developed of how green a typical Cypriot organization might be. Subsequently, some guidelines were constructed to assist Cypriot or similar organizations to adopt environmentally-friendlier ICT practices.
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