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 In the wake of the federal government's climate change review and the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act, eco-responsible business practices are still high on the agenda.
Research Shows IT Not Ready for New Green Legislation
According to Sun Microsystems' annual eco responsibility survey, more than three quarters of ANZ businesses are unable to measure and report on carbon emissions. We received more than 2,500 responses from 813 organisations across ANZ. The research showed that while only 22 per cent of companies can measure carbon emissions, a staggering 33 per cent have no plans to put measurement practices in place.
The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act, introduced on July 1, 2008, currently applies to 400 of Australia's largest organisations. Next year it will expand to cover more businesses. How long before this covers your organisation? Is your business ready to comply with these new green regulations?
Economic Benefits of Eco Responsibility
It is not just regulations that have an impact on businesses. In 2010, carbon trading will be introduced. The results show that businesses are unprepared for the scheme that can provide economic incentives for achieving reductions in pollution emissions. Once organisations realise the potential benefits of carbon trading, the ability to monitor and measure emissions will become crucial to achieving those benefits.
Of the respondents that could disclose their organisation's energy consumption, 44 per cent spend more than $1 million on electricity annually. With the ever-increasing cost of power, businesses are becoming more savvy about opportunities to gain the economic benefits of eco responsibility.
Eco Opportunities Toolkit
- Save on our innovative green technologies with these special offers
- Read more about the eco responsibility survey results here
- Check out Sun's eco resources for ways to green your business
- See the results from Sun greening its own data centres, including more than $9 million USD cost avoidance in new datacentre
investment
- Calculate the energy output of a specific server by using the SWaP (Space, Watts and Performance) metric
More Companies Planning an Eco Strategy
Whether it's new regulations or the high cost of energy, more companies are going green. Comparing data from last year's survey, the number of organisations that have environmental or green business practices at a company-wide level in place has grown from 6 per cent to 66 per cent.
At the IT department level, 38 per cent of respondents said their organisation already had plans in place to 'green' IT, an increase of 11 per cent from last year.
As shown below, when asked to rate a range of strategies for 'greening' the IT department, energy-efficient technologies was the most popular (73 per cent), followed by systems virtualisation (66 per cent) and power and cooling solutions (59 per cent).
The energy sector is still the leader in implementing eco-responsible initiatives (88 per cent) followed by the financial services industry (81 per cent), retail (78 per cent) and telecommunications (74 per cent).
If you are interested in any further information on anything covered in this issue of Sun Inner Circle, please contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Duncan Bennet
VP and Managing Director
Sun Microsystems Australia / New Zealand Pty. Ltd.
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