Regulating Green IT: Laws, Standards and Protocols

The global focus on Green IT extends to all organisations, as regulators, industry associations, and social movements are 'encouraging' public and private sector organisations to leverage the direct effects and enabling effects of Green IT. This is being achieved through a combination of laws, standards, and social mechanisms. The objective of this chapter is to delineate the mix of regulatory, non-regulatory, and other influences being brought to bear on business and IT manufacturing organisations to make them more environmentally sustainable. The chapter: 1) describes the global regulations governing Green IT; 2) discusses the scope of emerging regulations and public policy on Green IT; 3) explores the complex web of regulatory, business and other forces acting on organisations to adopt Green IT; 4) deliberates the future of Green IT in the context of the growth in regulatory and other pressures; and, finally, 5) challenges the conventional wisdom on self-regulation on environmental issues.