If individuals can be steeped in environmental thinking just as they are in, say, security awareness then they will be able to apply that spin to everything they do and plan. They will naturally ask themselves things like. "Do I really need to print this?", "Is my phone charger switched off?", all the way to "Where can we usefully redirect the waste heat from the data centre?"

Actions aren't restricted to ICT, although many of them are. In fact, ICT probably represents the best way to enable the organisation to meet its overall environmental obligations. And here's a paradox: ICT may actually have to consume more energy in order for the organisation to save even more elsewhere. With the current obsession for cutting down on central computing energy use, it's easy to forget the potential leverage that IT has on the bigger organisational picture.

Our research showed that the top three (of six) ways of helping an organisation improve its environmental standing all related to travel. Home working, advanced communications and flexible working were highlighted as the most promising ways to reduce a firm's environmental impact. Other benefits included cost savings, impact on staff motivation and the acceleration of certain kinds of work.

Of course, the details differ by individual circumstance and things like the cost of heating a home worker's otherwise empty house may outweigh any gains. But such things can be weighed up locally. As long as people understand the overall purpose, they can make their own judgements or call on help if they need it. Expect to see a ballooning of 'carbon accountants' and 'carbon calculators' in the coming months.

Sustainability is not an add-on or a departmental issue. Like security and compliance, it is pervasive, creeping into every corner of the organisation. Whether we like it or not, agree with it or not, regulation will become more demanding and the cost of non-compliance will rise for all organisations. Major organisations have already started to put their suppliers under pressure to comply so they can show a clean pair of hands. This will also stand them in good stead as regulation and the associated penalties begin to bite.

The saving grace of this enormous amount of effort and cost is that it will result in a leaner running organisation which will benefit from a substantial and persistent decrease in costs and inefficiencies. And you, the CIO, will be right at the heart of its planning and implementation.

David Tebbutt is Programme Director at analyst house Freeform Dynamics