Just as information technology (IT) has contributed significantly to economic growth and quality of life, IT has an important role to play in creating a green economy. This is an excerpt from an ITIF web memo.
Our world is in the midst of a period of digital transformation where every sector, from health care to energy andfrom transportation to education, is being fundamentally altered and improved by IT.
This period of digital transformation not only entails significant benefits from increases in productivity and quality, but it has the potential to create significant environmental benefits. Other nations are aggressively pursuing green technology including South Korea, Japan and Denmark. South Korea is poised to become the world leader in green technology, through a wide array of government policies supporting green technology, strong executive leadership and a substantial commitment of public funding for this effort. If the United States expects to similarly reap these green benefits, it should look to the South Korean example as it develops its own national green IT strategy.
Green IT is not just about creating energy- efficient digital equipment, such as low-power processors and networking equipment, although this is an important component, especially as the use of IT proliferates. Green IT is also about the application of IT to create energy-efficient processes, such as telework and videoconferencing, to replace energy-intensive activities, such as commuting by personal vehicle or air travel. In fact, making IT more energy efficient is only part of the challenge. IT only contributes to approximately 2 percent of greenhouse gas emissions; the vast majority of emissions come from non-IT related sources, almost all of which can realize enhanced productivity and energy efficiency through the intelligent deployment of IT.1 Thus it is through the broad application of IT that we should expect to see significant energy-savings throughout our economy.
Recognizing these opportunities, many nations have begun to develop a green IT strategy. These national strategies consider the benefits of being both a producer and a consumer of green IT. Thus, national efforts to support more green IT generally seek three major benefits: creating “green-collar” jobs, generating energy savings, and boosting economic productivity.
One source of green jobs will likely come from the further development of green computing. Currently, the United States is well-positioned to harness some of the economic benefits stemming from the green IT policies adopted by other countries. For example, with regards to cloud computing—a trend for companies “goby ing green”—the United States is home to many of the major players such as IBM, Google, Amazon and Microsoft. 2 Yet the market is always in flux and policies to support continuous development are needed if U.S. companies hope to retain their dominance as premier providers of green solutions.
Nations should also expect green IT to lead in reducing the energy intensity of economic output. Certainly, even in the absence of national-level green IT strategies, the private sector will continue to make progress towards more energy-efficient computing. Much of this will be driven by simple economics—currently, for every dollar spent on hardware, fifty cents must be spent over the lifetime of the product on power and cooling.3 Yet the speed of development can be accelerated by those nations who spur investment in green IT. Moreover, the major energy-saving benefits of these innovations will primarily be enjoyed by those nations that make use of these new technologies.
Many countries have created initiatives to pursue green IT, especially Asian nations such as South Korea and Japan.4 South Korea in particular has been active in this area and has developed a comprehensive set of policies designed to transform the nation into a lowcarbon economy and society. The Korean strategy addresses how to make the IT sector more energy efficient, how to use IT to transform society and how to pursue “green jobs”. Since early in his term, President Lee Myung-bak has called on his country to follow a “low carbon, green growth” strategy, which until recently lacked many details.5 However, the Presidential Committee on Green Growth has been actively developing a national plan to make South Korea one of the leading green technology countries in the world.
The strategy is by no means any empty promise. In July 2009, the Committee announced a 5-year plan to spend a total of KRW 107 trillion (USD 87.7 billion) in green investment as part of its “Green New Deal” program launched earlier this year. This investment represents an annual financial commitment equal to 2 percent of South Korea’s GDP.6 The “Green New Deal” included a total of KRW 12 trillion (USD 9.5 billion) to investment in developing green technology over the next four years. Of those funds, KRW 4.2 trillion will go to investing in areas such as green IT products, building faster broadband networks, and investing in energy-efficient transportation systems. The remaining funds will be invested in R&D in 27 different green technologies, such as high-efficiency solar batteries, hybrid vehicles, high efficiency LEDs, and smart grid technology.