Green IT practice disclosure. An examination of corporate sustainability reporting in IT sector
| Published date | 08 May 2017 |
| Date | 08 May 2017 |
| Pages | 145-164 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-12-2016-0046 |
| Author | Qi Deng,Shaobo Ji,Yun Wang |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information & communications technology |
Green IT practice disclosure
An examination of corporate sustainability
reporting in IT sector
Qi Deng, Shaobo Ji and Yun Wang
Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Abstract
Purpose –As an enabler of environmentalsustainability, Green information technology(IT) has become an
emerging topic of interest in both academic and business communities. Despite its importance, confusions
exist in the contentand scope of Green IT practice. The purpose of this paper is to providean overview of the
current stateof Green IT practice.
Design/methodology/approach –First 14 widely accepted Green IT practice topics were identified
from prior research and a taxonomywas developed to categorize them. Using the content analysis method,
these topics wereexamined in the sustainability reports of 30 IT companies in 2014Fortune 500. A quantity–
quality portfolio frameworkwas developed and applied to measure and assess the GreenIT practices of the
selectedsamples.
Findings –Currently, the Green IT practice is still in its infancy.Both research and practice attention are
now focusingon IT’s direct impacts and enabling impacts, while overlooking the systemic impacts,on natural
environment. The possible reasons for the current state and the recommendations for future research and
practiceare provided.
Originality/value –Theoretically, this paper identified14 widely accepted Green IT practice topics and
developed a taxonomy for categorizingthem. The taxonomy and topics provide a theoretical basis for future
examination on Green IT practice-relatedissues. Practically, the findings of this paper provide guidelinesfor
Green IT practiceand directions for both Green IT developers and adopters in their decision-making.
Keywords Practice, Disclosure, Green IT, Corporate sustainability report
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
There has been significant discussion and movement over the past decade or so on
environmental sustainability. Information technology (IT), as both barrier and enabler of
environmental sustainability,has received relatively broad attention from both researchers
and practitioners. As a barrier, IT is a major consumer of electricity and a major source of
environmental pollution (e.g. electronic waste, hazardous materials) (Kavathatzopoulos,
2015). IT is often criticized for its direct negative effects on the natural environment and is
considered as a “necessary evil”insustainability management by many organizations (Hilty
et al., 2006; Köhler andErdmann, 2004; Mishra et al., 2014; O’Neill, 2010). As an enabler, IT is
one of the most effective tools used in corporate sustainable management to address
environment-related issues, such as the use of IT-based sensor technologies to monitor
energy consumption. A report from Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI, 2008)estimated
that IT would help organizations globally to realize 7.8 gigatonnes of CO2 emission
reductions by 2020,which represents approximately $946.5bn of costsavings.
With the growing focus on IT’s enabling capability, Green IT has become an emerging
topic in both the academic and businesscommunities. In the academic community, Green IT
Green IT
practice
disclosure
145
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.15 No. 2, 2017
pp. 145-164
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-12-2016-0046
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
has been proposed to address problems related to corporate environmental sustainability
since its inception (Patrignani and Whitehouse, 2014, 2015). It is widely believed by
researchers that GreenIT can be used to achieve corporate environmental sustainabilityand
has a potential capability to turn the society into the more sustainable one (Fuchs, 2008;
Marrone et al., 2011; Melville, 2010; Lennerfors, 2014). As Elliot (2011) proposed, one
challenge for Green IT is to directlyaddress the 2 per cent carbon emission by improving the
energy efficiency of IT products and the other is to, directly and indirectly, address the
remaining 98 per cent through innovative Green IT applications. In the business
community, companies are increasinglyadopting Green IT programs. According to a report
surveying 426 companies in North America and 1,052 companiesworldwide, 86 per cent of
the companies stated that implementing Green IT programs is a major component of
corporate sustainabilitystrategy (Symantec, 2009).
Despite its importance, it is still unclear what Green IT is. Confusions exist in the
definition of Green IT, the use of similar terminologies (e.g. Green Information Systems, IT
for Green), as well as the content and the scope of Green IT practice.While researchers have
paid attention to the first two problems, they have not adequately addressed the issue of
what Green IT practice comprises. On the one hand, the ambiguityin the content and scope
of Green IT has created impediments in thepursuit of Green IT initiatives, as organizations
find it difficult to interpret and operationalize the term (O’Neill, 2010). On the other hand,
overlooking the fact that Green IT is a general term which consists of a number of
technologies (e.g. virtualization, smart grid, cloud computing) and involves various issues
(e.g. energy consumption, emission, electronic waste) has prevented Green IT researchers
from taking the technical context into account properly and making broad and practical
contributions (Deng and Ji, 2015). Therefore, it is necessary to address the ambiguity and
conduct a thorough examinationof the Green IT practice.
In this paper, we provide an overview of the current state of Green IT practices by
analyzing IT companies’sustainability reporting (SR). Studies examining SR have three
major streams. The first stream deals with the SR activity per se (Jenkins and Yakovleva,
2006; Perez and Sanchez, 2009). It addresses research questions such as what has been
disclosed in SR, what should be disclosed in the SR of a specific sector and how has the
corporate SR activity evolved.The second stream aims to reveal the corporate sustainability
practices by examining the contents of corporate sustainability reports (Fuisz-Kehrbach,
2015). It embraces the assumption that the corporate sustainability practices are reported
properly in the sustainability reports and studies sustainability practices by examining
disclosure. The third stream examines the impacts of the SR activities on the corporate
sustainability practices and performances (Gray, 2006; Adams and McNicholas, 2007).This
paper follows the first two streams. Specifically, we first proposed the taxonomy for Green
IT practice based on previous studies so as to provide a basis for the systematic
examination of the SR. Then, we identifieda list of widely accepted Green IT practice topics
and categorized them based on the taxonomy we proposed. Using the taxonomy and
generalized topics as a guide, we examinedand analyzed the disclosedcontents of the Green
IT practices in the sustainabilityreports of IT companies.
This paper has several implications. Practically, because of the significant role that
Green IT plays in corporate sustainabilitystrategy, it is necessary for business managers to
follow certain proper guideline to implement Green IT practice. The result of this paper
provides a basis for formulatingsuch understanding and guideline. Furthermore, the review
of the current state of Green IT practice reveals the maturity levels of different Green IT
practices and thus can provide some potential directions for both Green IT developers and
adopters in their future activities. Theoretically, Green IT and corporate environmental
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