76% of Asia Pacific Governments Recognise the Need for an ICT Sustainability Strategy [Press Releases]

More than three quarters of Asia Pacific government CIOs and IT managers have realised the need for a dedicated office to plan and execute an overall ICT sustainability strategy, according to a new poll released today by Schneider Electric IT Business conducted at an industry event. Interestingly for ICT vendors, 72% of the participants indicated that they include sustainability criteria in the evaluation and selection of ICT purchases. As an effort to explore Asia Pacific’s attitudes towards energy efficiency, the poll results underscore the importance of spreading awareness of energy management amid the high environmental and financial cost of energy throughout this region.

Remarkably, of the 32% of respondents who said that cost and/or availability of electricity will have a significant impact on their data centre’s ability to support operations over the next 3 years, more than 70 percent were from developing countries – India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia. Representatives from the more developed Asia Pacific countries polled – China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore – were less concerned with the supply of energy, noting that it may only affect a limited number of departments or have a minimal impact. Read more

Greening the ICT industry

(This article is contributed by Mr Nick Lambert, Managing Director, Global Markets, Cable&Wireless Worldwide)

The Asia-Pacific information communications technology sector has developed at an exponential rate in the last 10 years. It is also producing a growing environmental footprint which must be managed in the long-term.

Companies the world over are beginning to look at Green IT and sustainability issues in information and communication technology (ICT), which in itself has irrevocably changed the way we work and provided us with solutions to connect, engage, and collaborate.

We see that ICT plays a dual role in being both a cause and a solution for environmental sustainability issues, with a significant amount of energy usage – which generates a large ecological footprint on one hand, and plays a vital role to help address environmental sustainability problems on the other. By recognising and addressing this delicate balance, it is our view that ICT organisations can help employ more energy-conserving ways of working. Read more