3) When you hear the term “making IT eco-friendly”, explain how this is related to Information Technology and the environment.
In today’s society, information technology has developed to become an essential component of business processes within various industries and has irrevocably transformed the way businesses work by providing more productive, efficient and a more powerful means of producing resources. However, it has contributed to the world’s environmental challenges and caused detrimental effects on the environment via the pollution elicited by manufacturing, wasteful disposal of computers and components as well as the toxic chemicals used in the manufacturing process which can enter the food chain and contaminate water (Green IT, 2012). Therefore, in recent times, due to global warming and as awareness of environmental dangers have become widespread, there has been increased importance surrounding ‘making IT eco friendly’ or alternatively, the widely popular term, ‘green IT’. Green IT correlates with information technology and the environment as according to Murugesan (2010), it relates to the study and practice of the design, manufacture and use of more efficient and effective computer hardware, software and communication systems in order to help alleviate the carbon footprint and various negative impacts of information technology usage on the environment. The subject of ‘green IT’ has become a somewhat contentious issue, with the question being raised on whether the phenomenon is just hype or reality. A short video conducted by information technology media group, CIO interviewing numerous IT leaders showed the majority of them believed it was indeed happening today. Furthermore, in 2008, green IT was the top strategic technology for the year as stated by Gartner (Brodkin, 2008). Green (2008) states that corporations including some of the world’s largest consumer and technology companies such as