McKinsey Quarterly estimates IT’s carbon footprint at 1% of all carbon produced in 2002, growing to 3% in 2020. Bad news, right?
They also predict that in that same time period, IT enables a 15% reduction in carbon generation through increased telecommuting and improving energy productivity. Storage plays a key role in creating an ever-more efficient home for business and personal content.
There’s more than one way to view technology’s effect on the environment. It’s not a zero-sum game of simply counting tons of carbon used by IT and storage.
Is it worth generating 1.5 metric gigatons of carbon to help abate five times as much over the next decade? Yes, I think so.
Can we do even more (less) with our IT carbon spend?
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