Innovation for Sustainability in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

With increasing concern regarding global climate change and volatility of energy markets, computing has begun to embrace the notion of Green information and communication technologies (ICT), in which the environmental impact is taken as a consideration in the design of new technologies and systems. A broad concept, Green ICT of course has varied meanings. Some consider recycling of components with minimal use of corrosive solvents as a green avenue. Another may be the U.S. government's Energy Star program, which produces benchmark criteria on energy consumption for consumer products, including personal computers, rewarded with official certification for meeting or exceeding efficiency guidelines. It is on this second thrust regarding energy efficiency that we make an argument, for a change of thinking to acknowledge economic and technological factors broader than performance alone. While the march to greater concern and awareness on global climate change has stretched over several decades, when oil and gas prices rose into previously unforeseen high territory during the summer of 2008, the desire for ICT designed to consume less electricity became a significant concern in the world of computing. This marked a change. Although researchers and engineers in computing have been concerned about the environment, emphasis has always been placed on innovation meant to sustain Moore's Law, without explicitly addressing the question of sustainability and impact on the environment. In this paper, we propose a novel measure, the sustainable innovation quotient or SIQ, that we believe provides a unified approach to thinking about innovation and growth, while being cognizant of the potential environmental impact. For the purposes of this paper, the acronym ICT, a commonly used term which includes Computing of a variety of sorts, is an umbrella that includes all technologies for the manipulation and communication of information.