Green IT: An Unstable Coalition?

Conservative-Liberal coalition might look unlikely, but it has nothing on so-called “green” technology.

Left-leaning Liberal Democrats are concerned that their ideas on education, Trident and Europe may not survive an alliance with the Tories – and so they should be. There is a track record of conservative values co-opting and defusing more altruistic attitudes.

The green movement is a classic example. Its roots go back decades to the 1960s when books such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring were more than just flower power. Over the last ten years, green has been taken up – or hijacked – by politicians and corporate marketing departments, and has become a different animal altogether. Instead of saving Pandas, green means hoarding pounds.

More Is Now Less

Right-leaning capitalist theory has encroached on lefty green-thinking very heavily in the realm of IT. It might seem obvious that we need less production, less consumption, and less technology, to conserve natural resources and protect the planet. Instead, tech companies and governments argue that what we need is more.

Clean and sustainable technologies should replace their polluting predecessors but it should occur at the natural rate of attrition. The car scrappage scheme is a clear example of how the green message has been muddied to serve economic needs. Yes an old clunker might be more polluting but crucially the environmental cost of keeping it on the road is significantly less than the total cost of its shiny new replacement, which comes with a huge carbon debt thanks to the raw materials needed to make it.

The same carbon and materials debt theory applies to computing. According to a 2003 academic study, Computers and the Environment: Understanding and Managing Their Impacts, 75 percent of the environmental harm caused by PC use occurs in the extraction and manufacture phases of the life-cycle – before a PC is used for the first time. So it makes sense to hang onto old kit longer rather than rushing out to replace it with a supposedly more efficient machine.

The marketing departments of tech companies have seized on the efficiency message and quietly stifled the issue of material consumption and carbon debt. There have been moves to remove some toxic compounds from PCs, and even some push towards the use of lower impact materials for packaging and casings, but the fundamental message of consumption and upgrading remains. Just as the Tories have chosen to embrace elements of the Liberal Democrats’ policies which they find conducive, tech companies have coopted the parts of the green movement which serve their purposes.

I recently spoke to the Green Grid on this issue. As one of the leading industry bodies on sustainable use of IT, you might have hoped they would concede the point about the holes in current green IT thinking. But with members such as Intel, Microsoft and AMD it wasn’t that surprising to learn that they didn’t quite buy the idea. “If you look at the efficiencies that are gained by the use of IT in terms of the overall carbon implications of a delivered good, it has contributed substantially to the GDP of every nation,” was the argument from Green Grid boss John Tuccillo.

One In Ten Printers Adhere To Green Rules

More evidence that the IT industry is only paying lip service to the concept of truly green technology was shown by a recent survey from services company Probrand. An analysis of the hardware from 11 vendors revealed that only 22 percent actually adhered to environmental standards such as the energy star system. The worst culprits were printers, with only one in ten of the devices having a green rating.

But this smothering of the green tech message to sell more products hasn’t gone unnoticed. Just as we can expect more militant left-wing elements of the Liberal Democrats and Labour to react against the cosy agreement of the Tory-Lib Dem pact, more radical elements of the green movement are taking on the subversion of sustainable technology. Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics and its Cool IT league are just two of the campaigning group’s efforts to name and shame those IT companies that fail to deliver on their environmental commitments.

Greenpeace has also taken direct action against tech companies it believes are not pulling their weight on sustainability. Campaigners from the group recently unfurled huge banners on Dell’s offices in Bangalore, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen calling on chief executive Michael Dell to “Drop The Toxics”.

Drop The Toxics

Perhaps it is unfair and even irrational to criticise vendors’ efforts on green IT to date. It could be argued that compromise is a fact of life and flawed environmental thinking is better than none at all. Just as the Conservative and Liberal coalition could actually bring out the best in both parties, it could be argued that some cold hard economics has helped to temper the fanciful dreaming of tree-huggers in green camp and produce practical initiatives.

Cameron and Clegg are probably acutely aware that papering over the very significant differences in their parties could see their precarious arrangement implode. Honesty is what is called for and the same applies to sustainable use of technology. Tech vendors need to steer clear of greenwash and co-opting sustainable messaging for their own ends. Instead they should focus on what the genuine improvements in sustainability and reuse which their business models allow and be upfront about what does not.

Just as selling the electorate promises they cannot keep will result in swift retribution for the Lib-Cons pact, tech companies should expect increasing scrutiny from a more environmentally informed public. When it comes to sustainable IT, honesty is definitely the best green policy.