Green IT Measurement Challenges

by Bhuvan Unhelkar

When it comes to measuring carbon emissions, especially across medium-sized to large businesses, there is an urgency to measure and report carbon data. Two important things related to carbon emissions stand out: the need to comprehend how much carbon is being generated by the business activities, and even more importantly, the lack of standardized and detailed measurements to do so. Currently, there are myriad factors that get overlooked, double calculated, or confused with other things when it comes to ascertaining carbon emissions. And the IT support for these calculations is also limited. For example, even an Australian official tool for calculating carbon emissions comes with a disclaimer [1]! Similarly, at an individual level, we have a much lesser "feel" for the amount of carbon emissions occurring through our activities than we have for our power or water usage. For example, the average home PC user may be surprised to discover that his or her computer emits anywhere between 0.4 metric tons to 1.6 metric tons of carbon in a year (depending on how it is being used) [2].