Green IT and the OECD

I don't talk a lot about the work that I do from 9-5. The short version is that I work in IT for the Canadian gov't.

Lately I have been extremely lucky to be able to combine my passion for greening with the work that I do in IT. For the past 4 months I have been co-leading a task team responsible for planning and implementing a green IT vision for my department.

Along these lines I'm planning a number of blogs next week on what we have implemented so far and our hopes for further greening. Some of the things are really easy - things that anyone who uses a computer and is interested in greening and/or reducing costs would want to do. So stay tuned - it's going to be good. :)

In the meantime I'm excited to announce that I've been invited to be the conference blogger for an OECD conference - ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change. Besides being honoured, I'm just really excited to attend the conference. For those who are interested, the program of events is here. I'll be attending the following sessions (in addition to the keynotes and roundtables):

• Reducing environmental impacts during the ICT life cycle


• Innovation and behavioural change


• The ICT sector in focus


• Governments paving the way

I've been doing a bit of background reading and I'm happy to learn that the framework that we have built for greening IT at my work is in line with what is being discussed on an international scale. That is, green IT is about not only greening the IT that is used (it is estimated that 2% of the worlds energy use is for IT), but also about using IT to enable green practices (esp in infrastructure, and urban development).

I'll be doing the blogging here and I've told the organizers that I'll do 3 blog posts a day so I'll do my best to ensure that I don't get too technical. I'm hoping to learn a lot and I'm looking forward to sharing.

If you aren't sold yet, here is a tweet from @OECDtweet "What have Google and Greenpeace got in common? Find out at OECD mtg in Denmark, 27-28 May: www.oecd.org/sti/ict/green-ict (live webcast)"

Aren't you intrigued? Don't worry, I'm attending that session. :)

And yeah, did you notice? The conference is in Denmark. Yes the Denmark that is 6 hours ahead of Ottawa. I'll be attending virtually so that means a 3am start time for me.

Cross your fingers I'm coherent!