Green it as an important tool for sustainability

Information technology (IT) refers to the use of any computers, storage, networking and other physical devices, infrastructure and processes to create, process, store, secure and exchange all forms of electronic data. The increasing demand for information systems in all areas like personal and business life made it to be a part of our everyday lives. With growing concerns for sustainability, it became evident that IT should not increase environmental problems. “Green IT” term first appeared in the U.S. in 1992 with the “Energy Star” application. This concept covers topics such as: Production of computer parts with minimal damage to the environment when they are produced, producing all kinds of devices used in IT such as computers, devices used in data centers etc. most efficiently in the terms of energy usage, using reusable and harmless to environment materials, making data centers more efficient by using technologies like cloud computing. Green IT is an important concept for both environmental and IT sector sustainability. It is important for IT sector’s future because consciousness towards environment is highly important in all areas. The main features of Green IT are described as: (a) Effective implementation: optimizing the capacitance while using information systems. In other words, it is an important feature of Green Information Technologies that we do not use products with features and capacities that we will not use, (b) Ecofriendly Technologies: Describes the minimization of harmful effects of any equipment used in information technology throughout the entire life cycle.The usage of easily recyclable and nonharmful materials can be an example to this, (c) Technologies with Smart Energy Use: This concept refers to the intelligent management of energy consumption whilst performing the functions of the software and hardware to be used. This feature should be considered when designing or producing information systems. It is now seen that worldwide CO2 emissions from information technologies are responsible for 2% of total carbon dioxide emissions. However, with the increasing and widespread use of information technology, this figure is predicted to increase in the coming years. Even if it won’t increase, IT can be used in reduction purposes in the future. This paper will outline the most recent developments on Green IT and the main challenges that lie ahead for its implementation. Examples will be provided from global IT giants and emerging countries like Turkey.