Are eco IT jobs on the rise?

One of Greenbang’s writers had an article in the FT yesterday that looked at environmental careers in IT.

It found while IT does account for a lot of energy and waste, there aren’t so many eco jobs in IT itself, but over the business as a whole.

Research from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) echoes this. The study found that while companies are in tune with basic recycling and disposal of IT equipment, they had a relatively low level of awareness when it came to energy efficiency – 42 per cent of IT departments fail to monitor energy usage and a further 9 per cent were unsure.

“We’ve not seen evidence of many companies appointing a dedicated environment [specialist] within the IT function,” says an EIU representative.

“Some 56 per cent of firms do have a director responsible for energy and environmental issues, and in 10 per cent of those it is actually the IT director, so there clearly are some. But for most, it’s not there yet.

“Considering that companies used to have a ‘director of power’ at the start of the last century, when electricity was still a new addition to the workplace, it would be ironic if firms started to appoint someone to manage their energy consumption. But it’s hard to say if a specific role is coming out of all this [in IT]. It seems that more firms are appointing someone to consider the environmental and energy impact.”