IT industry urged to lobby for greener rules

News Article - Tuesday, March 18, 2008

filed under: Technology, Regulatory

Further information

The European IT industry should press politicians for greener legislation in order to protect the environment and cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, an expert claims.

According to John Doyle, sustainable development policy coordinator for the European commission (EC), tighter legislation is needed to reduce carbon emissions within the IT sector and industry leaders need to "bully" EU ministers to address the issue.

Mr Doyle claims that the IT industry in Europe is currently unsustainable and is standing in the way of progress on tackling climate change, Computerworld UK reports.

"We must put IT at the core of energy efficiency to combat climate change. But it's unclear on how we need to re-engineer ICT to transition to become a 'low carbon, high growth economy'," he told the website.

Access Accounting recently released new mid-range accounting software that helps enterprises calculate their carbon footprint across the entire company, with data broken down into categories.

The accounting packages use government data and GHG (green house gas) protocols to indicate power consumption, helping businesses to cut costs and reduce their impact on the environment.

A recent white paper from trade association Intellect revealed that "irreversible damage" could be caused unless low-carbon technologies are adopted soon.

Add to del.icio.us | Digg this story