Contents
Title
Green IT: The Perspective of IT Professionals
Author
V. Aslihan NASIR, Reydan YASAR
Classification JEL
Q56.
Abstract
Public awareness about environmental issues has risen as a result of scientific research and reports published in the field. Discussions are ongoing mostly on global warming, greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy consumption. Information Technology (IT) plays a key role among these discussions due to its negative impact on environment. Within this context, Green IT becomes essential to return these negative impacts into positive by focusing on hardware, software and process dimensions of the challenge. Producing with renewable energy and less harmful materials, utilizing green data centers and smart management of disposal processes will directly reduce total carbon footprint of an organization. In recent years, organizations’ consciousness on environmental problems has increased steadily, besides, IT professionals’ role on environmental sustainability, through Green Transformation, gains importance. In this study, our concentration is primarily on the investigation of Green IT from the perspective of IT professionals. The awareness level and beliefs of IT professionals about Green IT were examined via an online survey. We have collected data from 257 IT professionals, who work at different sectors of an emerging market. The initial findings reveal that IT professionals have low levels of awareness. Furthermore, they suggest that green IT/IS usage is associated with eco-friendly devices & systems, and believe that green IT/IS usage reduces electronic waste and hazardous materials. The great majority of the respondents also assume that companies’ green IT/IS device and application usage improves their corporate images. In addition, IT professionals indicate that green IT/IS can be used to reduce a business’s total carbon foot print. It has been also declared that green IT/IS involves making efficient use of natural and company resources in order to reduce negative environmental impacts. Moreover, it is believed that companies utilize green IT/IS in order to improve corporate sustainability & social responsibility.
Keywords
sustainability, environment, green IT, IT professionals, beliefs, awareness level.
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