August NewsBrief
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In this CIO Insight article originally published in July 2006, author Edward Cone notes a distinct disconnect between IT and companies' overt messaging regarding environmental awareness. While technology vendors seem to get "environmental sustainability", most corporate CIO's do not. Even the staid Wal-Mart recently touted as "Green" on Fortune Magazine's cover could not list or cite (at that time) any eco-responsible IT initiatives.
Interestingly two comments were highlighted in the article illustrative of the state of the computer disposal industry:
- "With e-waste, people do a request for proposal and then go with the lowest price. Once they have the lowest price, out comes their checklist of disposal criteria, and their due diligence is just a guy saying, 'Yeah, we do this,' and it gets checked off. That's the level of risk mitigation going on today, and it will not hold. In the next year to 18 months, someone is going to get hammered."
- Everyone wants to be in the computer disposal business and claim to do it right, "but a lot of people who say they will dispose of your equipment according to standards probably won't".
However, this lack of "eco-responsibility" is only a short-lived phenomenon. There are four drivers for change: Increasing data center energy consumption, companies striving for energy conservation, safe disposal saving money, and proper data disposal issues. Liabilities and costs generated from not being eco-responsible are forcing change in many areas and creating the "Greening of the CIO". The article emphasizes the importance of remaining with respect to properly handling technology assets and the cost savings generated from eco-responsible practices.
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