May 15th saw the inaugural meeting of the BASDA Green special interest group with representatives from a wide range of BASDA’s business software developer members including Sage, Microsoft, Access, Agresso, IFS and Infor. Attendees heard keynote speaker John Doyle of the European Commission move the Green IT debate forward from its focus on hardware efficiencies to look at the major role which business software can play. On 21st May 2008 the EC opened a 6-week public consultation on “Information and Communication Technologies enabling energy efficiency”.
BASDA will spearhead and co-ordinate the ICT sector’s response to meet the challenging July 1st deadline.
At the BASDA Green Special Interest Group meeting, the keynote speaker was John Doyle, Sustainable Development Policy Co-Coordinator, Information Society DG, European Commission. He announced that as part of its effort to combat climate change, the European Commission sees the use of ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) as a major enabler to improve energy efficiency throughout the economy.
The statistic often quoted, that the global technology industry is responsible for 2% of carbon emissions, misses the point that virtually all businesses are now run using software, hardware and communications technologies and, therefore, the tech sector will be the real enabler for all other industries to get their houses in order.
“It is vital that businesses understand the impact their activities have on the environment, but it has always been difficult to measure this impact to inform business strategies”, says Jairo Rojas, Director General at BASDA. “It will be increasingly important for businesses to be able to prove their green credentials and social responsibility as regulations emerge, consumers become more discerning about suppliers and investors more sensitive to their reputations”.
BASDA is actively engaging with the EC and government to highlight the importance of business software in terms of its contribution to delivering and measuring energy consumption. Business software is already appearing to measure, report and budget beyond financials into a parallel world of carbon accounting.
“BASDA has the track record from its previous work on EMU (European Monetary Union) and e-Business standards to help drive common measures and reporting that will be achievable by both the ICT industry and business software users,” adds Rojas.
John Doyle comments, “Being involved in this consultation process means that BASDA can help to proactively set the agenda before requirements are imposed on its members and their customers – something will happen.”
BASDA’s Green special interest group enables BASDA’s business software members to collaborate with other technology partners, environmental groups and charities. The objective is to promote green and socially responsible ways of working, to introduce common standards for measurement and reporting as well as generating awareness and recommendations to improve energy efficiency in other sectors.
BASDA are actively surveying members for collective input to the consultation process.
“We only have a few weeks to offer our consolidated opinion”, says Jairo Rojas. “We therefore need every BASDA member to consider and submit their views on which sectors they feel offer the most promising prospects for improved energy efficiency through the use of business systems and what actions need to be taken at EU level in order to maximise these effects. This is an exciting and challenging opportunity for BASDA.”
