Disclaimer: No, I'm not a recognised authority on green IT. And this is a blog (i.e., personal opinion).

In recent years I've sat through numerous 'green is good' sermons from global IT vendors such as IBM, Cisco and Dell amongst others. I suspect you may have too ... or that you will have before too long. The marketing departments in IT vendors are in a enviro-frenzy, hoping to greenwash you.

Please don't misunderstand me: I'm sure the sentiment is real and well-intentioned. It's just a shame that their motivation isn't.

I have to take IBM to task on this issue in particular and how their 'smart planet' message is being presented—although they're not alone. IBM are, however, out there waving the green/smart flag louder than their competitors. How is this for starters: "The planet will be instrumented, interconnected, intelligent".

So let's start there: this planet has over 6 billion living human inhabitants today. Almost 5 billion, give or take, are not connected to the web yet; the majority have little or no direct means to benefit from the types of IT initiatives currently being touted as leading to a 'smarter planet'.

What usually follows, during the greener/smarter IT pitch, is a segue from 'smart planet' to 'smart grid'. However, imho, that's one incredible leap! According to information available in my home country, Australia, electricity generation created over a third of CO2 emissions in 2006. Moreover, it increased by 53% between 1990 and 2006 yet the proportion wasted in distribution is staggering. Now, my home has abundant coal supplies so it is overly-reliant on a (dirty) source of readily-accessible cheap fossil fuel to generate electricity. Australia isn't a big country, by population (or total emissions), but we sell our coal by the boatload to countries like China. And China is a large country—by any basis of comparison—and growing fast. Moreover, it's building its infrastructure now.

So, if IBM (and Cisco and others) were serious about a smarter planet then perhaps they should look into newer approaches. Unfortunately, as at the time of writing, and as example, I can only find 3 hits on microgeneration on the IBM website. Ask their executives about it, as I have done, and what you'll hear is a deafening silence.

As always, actions will speaker louder than words. Green in IT today is all about dollars: your IT budget dollars. Moreover, even if it weren't, 'green' is undoubtedly a misnomer; most of what has been offered to you so far is just (slightly) less 'un-green' ... imho.

You can view Hydrasight's research on this topic here (registration required, no charge).