A Framework for the Alignment of ICT with Green IT

Abstract

The Public Administration is forced to transform itself by taking advantage of the contribution of ICT to in the process of reducing bureaucracy and increase transparency, promoting the dematerialization of processes, increasing the quality of online services, allowing greater ubiquity of access, reducing response times, in the search for improvement of the quality of life of its citizens. Decision-making should consider objectives not only technical but also financial, environmental, and social objectives, ideally aligning with Green IT. The objective of the paper is to present a framework, supported by international standards and frameworks, that allows measuring and guiding the alignment of ICT with Green IT for the optimization of practices instituted in organizations, namely in Local Government. This framework includes a qualitative component with several phases and quantitative component with a metric that allows the evaluation of alternative strategies for a given goal. The phases considered are Problem Identification; Problem assessment; Study and planning; Project; Telecommunications and Printing; Information Security; Innovation; Improvement of Citizen Service; Evaluation / opinion. The complete metric includes four valences: IT, financial, environmental, and social. The IT valence, its indicators and corresponding weights are illustrated in a practical example. The proposed framework is an innovative contribution to the area, clearly integrating the support of the perspective of Green IT and thus actively contributing to the implementation of sustainability policies and alignment with Green IT best practices in Local Government, as well as presenting with greater level of detail the components of the structure that emphasize Green IT concerns. The main expected results of the application of the framework are contributing to the implementation, in local government, of sustainable policies and good practices aligned with Green IT, whist targeting cost reduction and optimization, ubiquity of access, increased productivity and ensuring safety standards.

Towards Green IT: Assessing the Environmental Impact of Public Administration

“…This article can be considered a complement to the context and several indicators, including the other vectors that make up the FACIIL support tool, a work published by the authors in [9,13,16,17]. Briefly, it is relevant in this context to consider that the virtualization of infrastructure, with the replacement of physical servers by multiple virtual servers [18] and the replacement of personal computers with thin clients [19], the replacement of Cathodic Ray Tube (CRT) monitors with Thin Film Transistor (TFT) monitors, the replacement of desktop printers by multifunction devices, and the replacement of paper by digital, will be more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient ICT solutions, which can contribute to the reduction in CO 2 emissions, less deforestation, improvement of the environmental footprint and in alignment with Green IT.…”

“…In this sense, and after assessing the needs of the local authority, a multidisciplinary and aggregating framework [9] was developed, incorporating the various governance strategies of the local authority, to optimize ICT management practices.…”