IT equipment manufacturers have done much to advance green ICT technology and practices. It is unfortunate when they let a pro-consumption agenda undermine these efforts, as appears to have happened in the eWeek Europe's "Green Experts Pour Cold Water on Sweating IT Assets".

'Sweating IT assets' is a legitimate practice based on the idea that the greenest piece of equipment is often the one that is not purchased. It is part of a broad definition of Green ICT that goes beyond just buying new energy-efficient gear. Despite the article's title, it throws little "cold water" of substance on the concept.

The eWeek article starts off with a well-placed caution: "Most of the carbon damage is done when devices are built - not from the energy they consume during their lifetime, experts argue. Not surprisingly the idea of embedded carbon is not one the IT industry is as eager to embrace as energy efficiency, just as the concept of selling less kit that lasts longer doesn't fit well with the "new shiny thing" fundamentals of the technology industry."

The rest of the article is a couple of interviews and that is where things go amiss. The "cold water" comes off more like tepid equivocation. "It is difficult to answer that at this stage. I have seen some very competent organisations trying to tackle the embodied carbon discussion and there has been a huge amount of conflicting data to the point where there were a couple of studies done on behalf of the UK government in terms of desktop PCs and whether they should be kept for as long as possible or whether there were benefits of moving to lower in-use energy devices, and the two studies came up with answers at literally opposite ends of the scale. There is a lot more work to do there and a hugely complex issue to deal with."

If there are significant concerns about this practice, well-intended to reduce embedded carbon emissions and slow e-waste, the eWeek interviews don't enlighten us. More likely, Americans will recognize this position as similar to those coming out of the tobacco industry's 20th century playbook. The IT industry can do better in the 21st: equipment vendors have much to gain by being leaders for, not fighting against, the full range of Green ICT practices.

Update 2009.11.18
I was disappointed how quickly the questionable eWeek headline was uncritically tweeted by so many Green ICT folks. (@sustainableIT was an exception.)