Environment – Indian IT industry’s contribution

It is not too often that I go to office on a weekend. However, this Saturday was an exception. The darkness in office made me realize that somebody daily puts on the lights above my desk. After an effort of few minutes, I located the light switches and switched them on. To my surprise, not only my desk but the whole row, having ten cubes, was illuminated. I was concerned, “this is waste of power”, I murmured. Instantaneously, the grand Infosys office started haunting my thoughts.

I cribbed about this waste in front of my office friends, while enjoying free lunch. Everybody actively participated. After lunch and this intellectual discussion, I noticed that many people (including myself) have kept plates with lot of un-eaten food. Isn’t this waste? It may not contribute a lot to energy waste but still it is a waste. I pondered, what has increased in Indian economy, consumption or waste?

This made me mull over other wastes we in IT industry contribute to. Paper, the most obvious, instantly came to my mind. While printing documents, we never think twice. Fuel and electricity over-consumption are another areas where we contribute. As a Greenpeace supporter, I felt ashamed. I felt that we need to do more than financially supporting a campaign. But at the same time, I believe that to tackle big problems we need policy initiatives more than individual initiatives. So I started thinking what IT industry can do to reduce waste. While surfing environmental sites, I found the following article which talks about power audit as a solution to reduce power wastage.
http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/WasteAtWork.htm

This article suggests that regular audits should be made to analyze and suggest solutions for reducing wastage. As a part of IT industry, I can claim that Indian IT industry has lot of scope for improvement on the energy consumption front. Employees are not educated about the ways to reduce wastes and energy is used recklessly. The way out here is that Indian government should lay down a policy for power audits at workplaces. This policy will mandate IT industry to use energy efficiently and contribute less to the carbon emissions. Government should do something soon otherwise reducing the height of Himalayas by few millimeters (or perhaps melting of few Arctic glaciers) would be Indian IT industry’s contribution to earth’s environment.