Track 5: Green and Sustainable IS

Track Description

Societies must tackle environmental issues and adopt environmentally sound practices. IT is a significant and growing part of the environmental problems we face today but it can also be part of the solution. Hence, we are ethically required to adopt a holistic approach to minimize the environmental impact of IS because it is our responsibility to help create a more sustainable environment.
IS infrastructure is placing a heavy burden on our electric grids and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, IT hardware poses severe environmental problems both during its production and its disposal. But not only the infrastructure of the IS must be considered, the IS software implies also energy consumption. It is of prime importance to be conscious of the impact that a bad design or development of an IS' software can have on the energy required to run.
The public call upon IS sector is to green their IT systems by improving energy efficiency, using less harmful materials and fostering reuse and recycling. In this regard, we need to better understand the environmental impacts arising from IS, how products, services, operations, applications, and practices can be environmentally friendly, which are the standards or regulations to comply, and finally, how IS can help organizations and society with environmental issues.

Track Chairs

Coral Calero, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Dorina Rajanen, University of Oulu, Finland