Sustainability by IT

We have this finite window to make the transition.

(Leonardo DiCaprio, actor and climate activist)

To a large extent, sustainable information technology (sustainable IT) is about using IT to reduce companies’, organizations’, and individuals’ environmental impact. So far, in this second part of the book, we have focused on exploring how you can develop a sustainable IT practice to minimize the impact of IT and how we can make data centers, the cloud, applications, data, information and communications (ICT) equipment, and energy management more sustainable.

Technology—“CleanTech” or “SustainTech”—has an incredible opportunity to be an enabler in developing sustainable technology. This chapter will focus on how we can leverage technology to create sustainable solutions and achieve sustainability by IT. In this chapter, we take an outsider’s perspective and look at how IT can help reduce...