By Andres | In Say Wut?

So last week I managed to sneak a few hours in at the Oregon InnoTech conference, and by far the best session I attended was the ‘Green Software‘ session.

Now before y’all start chiming in about how cliché it is to write about ‘Green Software’ on Earth Day, let me just say that I meant to post on this subject last week, but didn’t manage to find the time to write until today…and oh yeah, in case you didn’t know, ummm, here in Portland, every day really is a true Earth Day…yup, the real deal…none of that diluted put a cute green logo on your site for a day stuff…fo shizzle.

Okay, back to my original topic. So while I sat in on this session at InnoTech I was horrified to learn that I had underestimated the carbon footprint of the world’s collective IT infrastructure…in fact, I hadn’t pondered the issue as much as I wish I had.

According to one of the speakers, the world’s collective IT infrastructure has a carbon footprint equivalent to the world’s airline industry; and personal computers account for roughly 40% of that footprint (yes, as in the computer you are using to read this post). As always, information and ‘facts’ have to be taken with a grain of salt.

Here are some links if you want to read along.

• Computer server ‘as bad’ as SUVs for climate
  
• The Internet’s Carbon Footprint - Server Farms vs Your Desktop PC
• IT Carbon Footprint to Outpace Aviation
• Do you run a green machine?
• The carbon footprint of that computer (short and sweet)

Technology has all kinds of environmental impacts that are regularly discussed, from the heavy metals used in circuit boards leaching into the soil to the link between cell phones and disappearing gorilla habitat, but it seems that the IT carbon footprint discussion hasn’t really received as much attention as it should (perhaps because it’s not ‘visible’ or ‘tangible’?).

So what can you do to minimize your IT carbon footprint? Well, there are all kinds of suggestions and recommendations floating around in the ether, including here,  here, here, and here. Whether you actually decide to take action-well that’s up to you. But I sure as hell hope you do.

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