Les TIC ne sont pas écologiques et ne le seront jamais!

C’est aux stratèges des entreprises et des gouvernements d’exploiter le potentiel des « TIC vertes », a expliqué Stefan Heng, chercheur à la Deutsche Bank, dans une analyse de février.

The paper asserts that green IT is « highly relevant to society » given the rise in energy prices and ongoing discussions about climate change. 

To illustrate this, Heng points out that « energy spending in computer centres rises at a rate of eight times higher than hardware spending ». 

With the help of green IT, the author claims that energy consumption could be reduced by « roughly half » provided that awareness can be raised among users of « their responsibility with regard to energy saving, » and provided that « more energy efficient technologies are implemented nation-wide ». 

However, he admits that green IT is « not green » in itself as energy consumption is « necessarily associated with the use of high-tech devices ». 

Heng cautions that the manufacture of IT hardware uses « toxic substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium and bromine, » which are harmful to the environment, while electronic waste is « difficult to recycle ». 

Nonetheless, he staunchly defends green IT, arguing that it is « not just about cutting energy costs at company level, » but also « helps to decouple energy consumption and economic growth ». 

Heng points out that the IT sector is already « helping to reduce the use of resources in several sectors [by creating] state-of-the-art control technology, which raises efficiency in production, and modern communication technologies such as video conferences and augmented reality systems ». 

Therefore, green IT should be taken seriously as it « helps to manage [processes] more efficiently » and leads to « completely new resource-saving business models and processes, » the paper states. 

« Even though information technology is not green and never ever will be, green IT is by no means short-lived hype, » Heng concludes.