Challenges of Green IT - Research Paper Example

Challenges of Green IT Introduction Green IT is a concept that seeks to help sustain the future through technology and is a method that many organisations are adopting in order to help keep the world safe (Aparna and Besta, 2009). Moreover, Green IT helps minimise the impact of negative operations in the information technology sector on the environment. It is done through designing, operating, manufacturing, and also disposing of technology such as computers and other related products in a way which can be termed as environmentally friendly. Furthermore, Green IT helps with the reduction of materials that are termed as hazardous and thus help in maximising the efficiency of energy (Keller and Gruber, 2010). It also helps in ensuring product's lifetime is efficient, and helps in promoting biodegradability of products that are termed as outdated and unused. It helps in maintaining an environmentally sound place and world that would be aiding in promoting the next generation by making the world a safer place. IT for Green is the applications for Green IT, in that there are the applications that increase the use of Green IT (Carter, 2003). The future world is one that is emerging towards a form of post-industrial capitalism. It for Green involves smart solutions, which include different levels of infrastructures such as energy grids, transport, and buildings. These are beneficial, which help in building the economy in an environmentally friendly way. Organisations should adopt Green IT because it is a change that is needed in order to help adapt into the future. Currently, the number of companies adopting the concept is rising and more are expected to join in (Keller and Gruber, 2010). Though this may be the case, there are challenges of implementing the strategy and that is what the essay is going to focus on, together with policies and strategies involved. Policies and Strategies It is a necessary for all companies to go green because there needs to be developed and changed. Green growth policies usually highlight the issue between the environment and the economy and the challenges that face the conditions of growth. It can be identified as the best conditions for growth. Moreover, strategies for going green include reducing the consumption of energy that organisations use (Marchewka, 2015). There are certain organisations that have been able to implement these strategies for lowering the energy use and production. This process can be done by using other means of energy and thus, be able to save money and also the environment. It will also enable for there to be power costs that are reduced. In addition, there is the switching off from certain appliances and machinery to others which are friendlier. It will ensure that the work is done same as before only that this time the work is efficient and adaptable (Unhelkar, 2011). Besides the implementing of policies in organisations are used to ensure that the organisations adapt the green change (Westra, 1998). In order for change to happen, all the participants are need to be included. Another strategy would include involving other corporations and agencies which can be useful in helping transition the movement to green IT. Such corporations are the ones that help and have the same vision as those of the organisations wanting to change to Green IT (Calder, 2009 “Compliance for Green IT”). It is also the use of campaigns to ensure that there is the spread of information on Green IT change (Dastbaz et al., 2015). Antecedents and Factor There are certain factors that affect the change in Green IT, and how organisations can change to become green companies. In order for organisations to adopt change, there is a need to have to start from the inside and then go to the outside. One factor that can help organisations adopt green change is the factors that involve production (Spafford, 2008). Most organisations are large which have much work cut out in order for change. Organisations can adopt green change by simply changing the perspective on green products. There are some organisations which are more bent on ensuring the company profit regardless of the damage that it will bring. In order to change this, it needs to be a change in perspective and view things differently (Poniatowski, 2010). A change in perspective is helpful in maintaining a change in the green initiative. Another factor would involve social-political factors, which usually include the decision-making processes in the organisation. It also includes the involvement of public participation and the demand for an ecosystem that is environmentally friendly. There is also the issue of imposing and empowering communities, both in the local and also national level. There are also the agreements that these organisations enter into in order to help save the environment and preserve it for the future generation. There are also the factors in religion and culture where there are certain value and norms that are shared by people (O'neill, 2010). Challenges Funding of research and development There are various challenges that organisations face when Green IT is involved. Firstly, any type of technology, which is considered new, is one that requires certain development methods and research. It means that there are many factors involved which includes money. This situation is what is used to fund these developments and research methods. Without funding, the developments will fail, which is a setback in the IT industry. There is also the delivery of energy and how it will efficiently be used (Hird, 2010). The gathering of required resources poses a challenge to green change. Money is a very important concept when there is a need to adopt a new strategy. With money, there is the funding that can be used for research and also for development. In order to implement and adopt green IT in organisations, it needs to first identify the major areas that are going to be directly affected by the change (Calder, 2009 “The green agenda a business guide”). This takes up time and also money and this may be an issue with organisations. The money will not only be used for funding the project itself, but it will also be used as a means for the delivery of the energy. It will also be used for the efficient use of the energy that will be delivered, which means that funding is one important thing that needs to be present (Stan et al., 2010). The gathering of financial resources is an issue because it involves a lot of work that an organisation may not be willing to take part in. As a gigantic and on-going process, it poses a challenged mainly because there are times that this money is not available even for the basic operations (Andreas, 2011). For example, for a company such as HP, who produces toxin waste, it has to be able to do research so that it can get alternative ways to be able to reduce the amount of toxins. At a time of financial crisis, there is no money can be spared to do other projects because this will mean a down fall for an organisation. Currently, the world is changing and evolving and technology has become so advanced that all factors around the world are influenced or affected by technology. It has become an art, and also a skill that people have perfected with innovations that are bound to improve in the coming years. The techniques being used are unique to improve the level of technology that exists right now. Goods and services have been able to be improved by the use of technology, and there have many accomplished objectives. For that, technology started off as human beings learned to simply use things with simple tools (Andreas, 2011). Nowadays, those tools have become complex and more advanced, and have been able to grow on a global scale. Though all that has happened, it has eaten into the resources of the world and that is why at the moment the world is in a financial crisis that does not seem to end soon. Birth of New Industries The birth of new industries means that there is the death of other industries. In other words, it is the issue of interests in the corporate sector which comes into the picture. Businesses that have been in the traditional practices find it difficult to transition, particularly if the solely depend on these traditional methods of production. Currently, there is the transition to renewable energy, wind turbines and other forms of energy. It affects organisations that have been using traditional resources such as coal and also other petroleum products (Speshock, 2010). The need for traditional methods has gone down, and this affects various organisations. It also means there is the loss of money that such organisations incur lots of losses. For example, geothermal companies such as ALDACOR have been able to change the mode of power to renewable energy thus have faced out traditional forms. Corporate interests come into the picture when talking about this issue, in that for electricity production, renewable resources of energy are the most preferred and this means that traditional fuel such as coal and other derivatives from petroleum are no longer needed (Kim and Lee, 2011). With energy sources such as geothermal power plants and turbines, there is the phasing out of other energy sources that are more traditional. The challenge here is changing from petroleum use to geothermal energy use. There are businesses that have been in existence for long and might have to shut down because of the changes, or might have to postpone the demand shift. The cost of recalibrating and realigning the entire company might amount into billions of dollars and it will also affect the amount of dividends that have been accrued over the years (Velte et al., 2008). Government Contracts It is a challenge when Green IT comes to government contracts that companies have to obey. It tends to affect the financial status of the organisations (IT, B. T. C. I. F, 2012). There is an enormous number of contracts from the government in countries that are developing that have to do with non-renewable energy sources and also petroleum. For example, in this case would involve government contracts that are usually used in the Middle East and also Central Asia. These contracts are aimed at extracting petroleum products. It means that it hinders the development and the process of incorporating the use of energy sources that are renewable. The concept of Green IT started out in the United States where there was an agency that was launched called the Energy Star. It was a program that was aimed at helping organisations save money and help reduce the gas emissions that were destroying the earth. It did this by helping organisations identify the products that were offering superior energy efficiency at the time (Ariwa, 2014). These products would be used to replace those that did not offer the superior efficiency of energy at the time. When governments do not seem to support the project and instead go to other methods of energy, it is seen as an act to hinder the process of development of Green IT (Velte et al., 2008). Culture Change With the incorporation of Green IT in organisations, it needs to change the culture of an organisation. Change is inevitable and for many organisations, implementing Green IT would require for a change in culture, something that might bring issues. Changing the culture of an organisation affects the performance of the organisation in question. Green IT brings about behavioural and cultural change in any organisation and may pose as a serious barrier towards development. Though by incorporating Green IT an organisation is able to work better and efficiently, there is the aspect where an organisation may be comfortable with its culture and do not want to change it. Moreover, the issue on money will be used to make the necessary changes. Changing an organisation to be able to implement green IT requires money which an organisation may not be willing to spend on change. For example, Intel has always been able to focus on speed for the machines. With Green IT, it needs to investigate the speed and also reduce energy. It may want to change into Green IT but would not want to make unnecessary changes that may affect the performance of the company. The main battle comes between changing an organisation’s culture in order to adopt the Green IT initiative which would mean that the change would be costly and time consuming. The effort that will be placed in order to ensure that the entire organisation adopts the concept will be consuming (Hu and Kaabouch, 2012). Related Challenges Environmental issues affect the company in the same manner in that it becomes unable to incorporate change because there is still something that is holding a company back (Harris, 2008). The same methods used to deal with the other challenges are still then same methods that are used to deal with environmental issues. These issues are connected with environmental issues because the whole concept of going green involves the earth and its preservation. All the challenges organisations face usually involve two main factors --- external and internal factors. All these factors are connected together and once a challenge affects one, so are the others affected. The challenges mentioned above are challenges that are both in the internal and external factors, and thus show a connection with the environmental issues. In order for an organisation to go green, there is a need to first look at the most important factor; the environment. This situation means that there is the ability for change to happen when the environmental problems or issues are addressed (Brocke et al., 2012). There are certain factors which affect change in an organisation, including internal and external factors. Internal factors are the ones that involve issues within the company, and are the ones that directly affect the company. External factors are the ones that affect the company directly from the outside world. Internal and external pressures include pressures from both the internal and external factors (Velte et al., 2008). The external pressures can arise from the economic environment such as suppliers, competitors, rates of interest, rates of unemployment, settlement, domestic product and also credit policy. Moreover, the technological environment involves the use of knowledge to implement change. Furthermore, the sociocultural environment is where there are people values that are being incorporated together with habits and attitudes. When these are in plenty and are positive, then there is a chance for change (Greuel, Clement, Gadatsch and Schreiber, 2010). A lack of it causes no change at all. There is also the political environment, which concerns itself with bylaws and laws that are issued by the government thus are used to help implement change. Internal pressures arise from the people in the organisation that is doing specific duties for the organisation (Webber and Wallace, 2009). There is the structure of the organisation, which defines the workplace; thus, channels the roles and procedures that control an organisation. Besides, there are various processes, which are the activities that are required to transform an organisation. There are also the communication protocols that are involved in an organisation, and these too make up a crucial part in the change (Hu and Kaabouch, 2012). Conclusion Human beings have become connected through technology, and there is much that will happen before the end of technology starts. It is hard to imagine a world without technology. One major aspect that has been incorporated into the technology of late has been sustained. Sustainability can be described as the use of technology in an environmentally safe way. The concept has come to be known as Green IT, and it is meant to benefit both the technology sector, and also keep the earth safe while preserving the environment. For starters, there is the implementing of policies that ensure that all the processes that happen in an organisation are kept on track. This involves finding another more suitable an alternative way to get sustainable energy and also allocate funds for development (Hilty, 2008). There is the early planning for financial crisis; thus, ensure that the company does not get into trouble while in transition. Planning ahead is important in that there is the assurance of a plan to help with the flow of services and products. Another way to overcome these challenges by merging with other corporations, thus ensure continuity. There is also the fact that those organisations that were relying on the traditional methods are slowly making sure that transformation is in a slow manner in order to remain up to date. This is done by merging with other corporations that are more technological and also by undergoing a full innovation, which involves changing the entire company structure. There is also the changing of cultures and values of organisations in order to be able to incorporate changes on a whole level. Another major way of ensuring that there is always a solution to a challenge is incorporating everyone in the decision-making process, and this includes all the employees, stakeholders, and other parties. To the question posed, there is a challenge in figuring out the required answer that would be fit enough to be called an answer. It is because the entire factor is interconnected and figuring out the right answer conflicts with the conflicting pieces of information (Hart, Ted, Capps, Adrienne and Bauer, Matthew, 2009). From new technology to the government contracts and laws that aid in bringing about change, the real question that should be asked is whether there needs to be a law that imposes on organisations to change as a requirement. There also needs to be laws that govern the internal and external factors that affect an organisation. As a summary to the essay, it is clear to see that organisations face certain challenged when trying to adopt green IT policies but these challenges have solutions. Bibliography 1. Andreas, F. (2011). A simple path to sustainability: green business strategies for small and medium-sized businesses. Santa Barbara, Calif:+ Praeger. 2. 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