Green IT

Sustainability has emerged as relevant topic of strategic management during the last years – and it is supposed to become a game-changing megatrend (Lubin and Esty, 2010). Hoewever, business executives are struggling to identify sustainability-based sources of competitive advantage and to integrate environmental aspects into their corporate strategy. In addition, the strategic role of information technology (IT) still challenges executives. The IT strategy must be aligned with the business strategy to enhance firm competitiveness (Henderson and Venkatraman, 1993). Anyhow, IT/business alignment remains a major concern of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and the necessity to consider environmental aspects of IT further increases the complexity of this strategic challenge (Avison, Jones, Powell and Wilson, 2004; Luftman, 2004). IT is responsible for substantial amounts of carbon dioxide emissions and the demand for data processing and storage capacities rises continuously. Even so, Green IT practices can enhance energy efficiency and the consequent application of green technologies can decrease IT-related carbon dioxide emissions. Green IT is acknowledged as strategic technology that will play a fundamental role in reengineering business and production processes to reduce the environmental footprint of organizations (Watson, Boudreau and Chen, 2010). Furthermore, Green IT practices induce considerable cost savings and often have a positive return on investment (Harmon, Demirkan, Auseklis and Reinoso, 2010).