BCS: IT Workers Need More Green IT Skills

IT workers need to learn new skills in order to adapt their organisations to the needs of green computing, partly due to the requirements of upcoming legislation, according to the British Computer Society (BCS).

Legislation such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) will oblige organisations to report their energy consumption, creating a new demand for workers trained to understand and manage energy usage, the BCS argued.

New demands

“There is no doubt that legislation is going to create demand for an IT professional with new skills, and generate new roles,” said Michiel van der Voort, the BCS’ director for international and professional development services, in a statement. “For example, we’re already seeing the emergence of new business roles, such as Sustainability Managers.”

The organisation has launched a new intermediate certificate in Energy and Cost Management for Data Centres to provide training in these areas.

The new certificate will aid candidates in understanding the importance of data centre energy and cost, predicting and carrying out management steps and comparing and distinguishing between energy and cost management options.

It is aimed at data centre managers, operators, consultants and technicians, as well as business unit managers, IT purchasers, architects, solution consultants and CSR professionals, the BCS said.

The society also updated its intermediate certificate in the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres.

In May 2009 the BCS launched what it called the first and only recognised qualification for green IT. The Foundation Certificate in Green IT provides guidance on issues such as corporate social responsibility, environmental legislation and carbon emission reduction.

Ever-tightening legislation

According to BCS Qualifications director Pete Bayley, although companies might be facing constraints on training budgets at the moment, the three-day course is a worthwhile investment despite its £1,400 price tag. “Organisations need to know how to comply with ever tightening legislation, how they can create significant cost-efficiencies, and how to balance the internal and external economic drivers they face,” he said at the time. “We’re confident that individuals who complete this qualification will be able to develop a strategy that will bring significant benefit to their business.”

In December 2010 the society introduced an energy-efficiency accreditation scheme called the Certified Energy Efficiency Data Centre Award (CEEDA), based on the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres.

The Award was designed to give data centre operators an independent accreditation and verifiable evidence that their data centre is following energy efficiency best practice.

The government is facing more calls from UK businesses to scrap the CRC, which the industry now views as just another tax, a March survey found.

Electricity provider npower surveyed 70 people responsible for energy management in their organisations. That survey follows hot on the heels of the business group CBI, which has demanded that rebates should be restored to the CRC, or the scheme scrapped altogether.

The npower survey of UK businesses found that not only do companies wish the CRC to be ditched, but also more than a quarter (29 percent) do not think the CRC will help the UK meet its carbon reduction targets, which was one of its main aims.