Climate Change: What's the CIO's Role in Green Government?

Public executives have been more likely than legislative bodies to set expectations directly related to IT. Through executive orders and directives, a growing number of governors have directed agencies to reduce energy consumption across the board, including IT's power demands.

Likewise more than 600 mayors have signed the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which includes commitments to commute reduction programs, purchase only Energy Star-certified equipment and support sustainable building practices such as the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating program.

Elected officials and other public officials are in an unenviable position because there is no one answer to what the public expects from leaders, their neighbors and themselves. The public opinion research firm Ipsos MORI observes that, "While people voice concern about climate change but do little to change their behavior, they also bow to financial pressures whilst claiming to shrug them off."

For now, the lack of consensus may provide some breathing room for the public-sector IT community as it figures out how to best address climate change. "I think it's going to become a day-to-day consideration for most folks in government. I don't think it is right now," said Phillip Bond, president and CEO of the Information Technology Association of America. "I think it already is on the commercial side due to initiatives all around the globe as we recognize the connectivity of everything in the ecosystem - whether that's an IT system or the physical ecosystem - so you realize the products that you use come back into that system [need to do so] in an eco-friendly way."

Saving the environment is a big job, and it lends itself to many possible metrics and measures to reflect the complexity of the underlying science. Resisting the twin temptations to do too little or too much makes it all the more important to take a programmatic approach while avoiding unnecessary duplication of effort. Gartner research advised caution: "Regulations are multiplying and have the potential to seriously constrain companies in building data centers, as the impact on power grids, carbon emissions from increased use and other environmental impacts are under scrutiny."

For the public-sector IT community, integrating green into existing policies, plans and processes is another opportunity to avoid building tomorrow's organizational stovepipes today.

Changing the Climate with Public CIOs
CIOs came into their own when organizations recognized the strategic importance of IT. Today, as the strategic importance of sustainability grows in government, it opens the possibility of the ascendancy of a "Chief Sustainability Officer." The proponents of such a development envision a "Chief Green Officer" who will lead a broad agenda to "reduce the environmental footprint, engage with a diverse group of stakeholders and discover new revenue opportunities."

On the downside, green czars represent the thin edge of the wedge in creating a new bureaucracy. There are other organizational constraints. A chief sustainability officer would be less likely to be able to see into particular operating environments and understand the opportunities and pitfalls of harvesting environmental gains than would other C-level executives. Moreover, a chief green officer is primarily a policy and policing role, which makes it difficult to be genuinely collegial in the executive suite.