As 2009 draws to an end, with many countries beginning to either emerge or look forward to emerging from recession, it is important to look back and assess the lessons we’ve been taught.  Much has been made of the need to ensure we’ve learned from our collective financial mistakes, in terms of the markets, debt and credit lending. 

But it’s also important to look at the positive things that have been proven by the downturn, because positivity drives progress.  Pretty much every example of progress in human history – let’s say discovering life-saving new treatments for illnesses, coming up with groundbreaking new mathematical theorems, or travelling beyond the confines of our planet – has been driven by the confident assumption that we can achieve anything we put our minds to.  That we are capable of solving any problem.  With climate change presenting arguably the most global and serious problem mankind has yet encountered, the need for optimism and confidence in our ability to tackle it is paramount.

Before the recession bit hard, Smart2020*, a report by The Climate Group, outlined a highly positive vision of how the ICT industry could not only contribute to the climate change solution, but play a significant role.  It acknowledged that the ICT sector’s own emissions are expected to increase from 0.53 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2002 to 1.43 billion tonnes in 2020.  But specific ICT opportunities were also identified in the report that could lead to emission reductions five times the size of the sector’s own footprint, up to 7.8 billion tonnes, or 15% of the world’s emissions, by 2020.

Among its highly practical examples were smart buildings, which could save 15% of North America’s buildings emissions, and smart grids, which could globally reduce carbon emissions by 2.03 billion tonnes.

As we emerge from recession, it is important we keep our eyes on positive ideas such as these and pursue any and all ways in which technology can support the fight to tackle and adapt to climate change.   

Chief among the lessons in positivity that the recession has taught us is that, as was hypothesised frequently before the recession, businesses can strive for and achieve a lower carbon footprint and a lower cost base, with no weakening of security or productivity. 

One impact of the global recession has been a timely revision of the role mobile working – and the technology that enables it – can play in organisations that are striving for sustainability while seeking to drive down costs.  CIOs have had to reconsider the mobility imperative, and to present a fresh and coherent case as to just how mobile their enterprise needs to be.  While global attitudes towards the environment will remain vigilant in 2010 and beyond, CIOs will need to be able to prove both financial and sustainability returns on any investment in mobility technology.  The ability to cut carbon emissions will be valued only if it is balanced by an ability to cut costs. 

Fortunately, readily available, proven mobility technologies such as secure remote access and video conferencing do work as a way to cut costs, as businesses that have been forced to take the mobility plunge have found, and it is proven to have a beneficial environmental side effect. 

Consider one simple example: imagine a single meeting in London, with one delegate flying from New York and one from Hong Kong to discuss a product they are working on.  According to Climatecare** , part of JP Morgan’s Environmental Markets group, this meeting would emit almost five tonnes of carbon dioxide from air travel alone.

Seen another way, the cost of business travel (£2,083 return from New York and £3,702 return from Hong Kong*** ) plus the time spent in the air (7.5 hours from New York and 12.5 hours from Hong Kong) and getting to and from the meeting, means that in sterling, the overall cost of this single meeting would run to five figures – over £10,000 for a meeting.

Using readily-available technology, the same meeting can now take place with minimal fuss, in real time, with ideas, data and materials shared over a secure network. This can be repeated multiple times per week if necessary, for a relatively small cost and with a relatively small carbon footprint.

On 9 October 2009, the European Commission announced****  the ICT sector should lead the transition to an energy-efficient economy.  It called for Europe’s ICT sector to agree common energy consumption measures, overtake the EU’s 2020 targets by 2015 and make innovative use of ICT to make Europe a low-carbon economy.  The EC said that replacing 20 per cent of European business trips by videoconferencing could save more than 22 million tonnes of CO2 per year.  It also said that broadband facilitating increased use of online public services could save two per cent of total worldwide energy use by 2020.

These are positive, encouraging facts.  The ICT industry should feel empowered by them.  It has a real chance to make a genuine difference.  When history looks back at how we as a species tackled the threat to our way of life of climate change, technology can and should be cast as a hero. 

* http://www.smart2020.org/ 
** Climatecare is part of the JP Morgan Environmental Markets group, http://www.jpmorganclimatecare.com/
*** Based on the cheapest business fares reserved one month in advance using a popular flights price comparison site on 20 October 2009
**** http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1498&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en