Sydney – Fujitsu, a leading provider of ICT business solutions, released the ICT Sustainability: The Global Benchmark 2012 Report on October 11, the third in an annual series. This year’s report reveals that efforts to improve ICT Sustainability have stalled in organizations across the world and opportunities to cut costs and make more efficient use of resources are not being maximized.
This report represents the most comprehensive, longitudinal analysis ever undertaken on the relative maturity of ICT Sustainability practices and technologies in a number of global markets, as well as comparative performance by country and industry sector.
The research summarizes the findings of responses from 1,200 CIOs and senior managers from eight countries (Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America). Respondents were questioned on sustainability initiatives ranging through procurement, disposal, power management, virtualization, consolidation, mobility, data centre efficiency, networking, cloud, software design, teleworking, collaboration, business process optimization, carbon and energy management tools for measurement and reporting.
The global ICT Sustainability Index (ITSx) declined slightly in 2012, falling to 53.1 from 54.3 in 2011 and a high of 56.4 in 2010.
Alison Rowe, Global Executive Director Sustainability, International Business, at Fujitsu, said, “This stalling indicates that while organizations have experimented with environmental initiatives, these have not resulted in strategic, cultural changes. This failure is possibly due to competing priorities, inferior change management practices or the loss of critical sustainability ‘champions’. Until there is clear direction for sustainability to be treated as a demonstrable KPI, progress is likely to remain less than impressive.”
More positively, the findings revealed there has been a marked rise in the number of ICT departments that have total responsibility for ICT power bills and consumption. This year, 23.1 percent of ICT departments now account for ICT energy costs and consumption, compared with 14.2 percent in 2011.
Ms. Rowe said, “The shift from sustainability idealism to commercially sustainable results is evident through improved ICT Sustainability performance. Organizations that account for ICT energy costs and consumption in the ICT budget (the 23.1 percent) have a 40 percent higher ITSx (67.6) than those that had never considered it, where the average ITSx is 34.8.
“Don’t just measure ICT energy consumption: disaggregate it, understand it, manage it in real-time and set key performance indicators that drive organization-wide improvements to the bottom-line. I urge executive teams to use the value from this benchmark study to help build the business case for ICT Sustainability initiatives to be used as a key component for improvement in overall financial performance,” Rowe said.
The ICT Sustainability: The Global Benchmark Report 2012 at a glance:
- The average ICT Sustainability Index (ITSx) in 2012 for all countries and all sectors is 53.1.
- The United States of America (USA) is the strongest performing country in 2012, with an ITSx of 57.3.
- The Utilities/Construction/Mining sector is the highest scoring industry with an ITSx of 56.5.
- The USA Financial Services industry, with an ITSx of 66.8, is the highest of any sector in any country.
- Globally, 23.1 percent of ICT departments include the cost of ICT power consumption in their budget, up from 14.2 percent in 2011.
- Those organizations that do include the cost of ICT power consumption in the ICT budget have an ITSx of 67.6 compared to an ITSx of 34.8 for those organizations who have never thought about it
Australia
In 2012, with a rating of 50.1, Australia has experienced successive declines from 52.8 in 2011 and 53.9 in 2010 and is below the global ITSx of 53.1. Australia did, however, show an improvement in the management of ICT power bills. In 2011, less than 1 percent of Australian ICT departments budgeted for ICT power bills and took direct responsibility for their energy consumption. In 2012, this rose to 8.7 percent. While this is a positive sign, Australian organizations still lag well behind the global average of 23.1 percent. Government with an ITSx of 53.7 is the best performing industry and the only sector to perform above the global ITSx of 53.1.
Chris Seale, Director of Sustainability for Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand, said, “The survey revealed clear opportunities for all organizations, regardless of size or industry, to enhance the use of technology to improve efficiencies and significantly reduce costs. ICT departments, across all sectors, are in a position to play a leadership role in enabling sustainable business practices for enhanced business performance.”
About the ICT Sustainability: The Global Benchmark Report 2012
Developed by Fujitsu, this report measures the prevalence and maturity of ICT sustainability initiatives being undertaken around the world. The report provides a number of valuable insights into the comparative performance of the organizations and the industry’s they occupy.
A total of 1,200 responses were collected through online surveys and interviews with CIOs and ICT managers from eight countries between April and July 2012. Respondents were asked 80 questions about their ICT Sustainability policies, behavior and technologies in each of the five key areas of ICT Sustainability.
The responses were weighted to deliver a score (out of 100) for each of the ICT Sustainability Index components. These were then combined to determine the overall ICT Sustainability Index for each organization, ensuring comparisons could be made between respondents.
