Breaking down barriers

Also, many behavioural and cultural issues limiting the use of technology will be removed as new standards are set as to what is acceptable. This could include virtual worlds, which offer a rich environment within which people, via their avatars, can collaborate remotely.

Providing services over the internet further reduces the need for travel. However, these services require designing with a holistic environmental perspective.

Other substitution technologies for travel and transport fall within the remit of supply-chain management where IT once again plays crucial roles in driving down carbon emissions. IT can optimise parts logistics and vehicle location services and offers remote monitoring and management for support services optimisation of field technician scheduling. Also, planning models can be extended to include carbon emissions, a fact which means that environmental impact of business decisions can be factored in.

It's important to share this green information with stakeholders. As awareness of the environment grows, consumers and corporations will want more information about the environmental footprint of products and services to inform their purchasing decisions. This will foster eco-labelling schemes that require information systems to support them by accounting for their carbon output.

Carbon accounting will be a huge undertaking and a great opportunity for IT. Environmental management systems, business intelligence and compliance programs can all be used to collate, analyse and report on the environmental performance of the organisation, its supply chain, and products and services. As a step further, carbon and energy dashboards can drill down to the organisational, building, functional and team levels, and maybe even down to the individual level.

Ultimately, CIOs need to look at the value chains of which the enterprise is a part, and consider how the value chain could be adapted or redesigned in an energy- and carbon-constrained world.