Our real estate group is on the forefront of this initiative, and they are targeting to have a significant number of their employees in the program by the end of this year. We envision savings in office space, reduced energy consumption and increases in productivity and service delivery.

Effective Leadership

CIO: What’s the most effective leadership approach you’ve seen to getting energy usage issues on the table and acted upon?

Douglas: Make the cost and use of energy explicit and make people account for it in their projects. You have to deal with real data and real dollars. This is not about leading, as in “Let’s get people to do something they didn’t want to.” It’s about leading, as in “Lets help get people more data and tools so that they’ll make better decisions on their own.”

Koomey: It’s the C-suite that must set real emissions goals and publicly and privately promote them. One individual must be assigned responsibility for achieving the GHG emissions targets and that person must be given enough staff, resources and authority so they can really get the job done. And managers must be questioned at their annual review about their progress in meeting emissions and cost reduction goals.

Davies: Many of the VPs of sustainability we’ve talked with have lean staffs for the function but direct and regular (at least weekly) communication with the CEO and board. They set the metrics, but the results need to be owned by business units or functions throughout the organization. They are also looking for better ways to coordinate the efforts of roles to gain leverage, and that is one of the big challenges today.

Adams: It’s also not just top-down. The most effective leadership approach involves encouraging a bottoms-up initiative that is fully supported by a champion from senior management. Stating the problem as one that is solvable and getting everyone involved has a galvanizing impact on organizations. Setting a goal and creating a vision of success that, if achieved, will be good for employees, profit and the planet is essential.

Regular feedback on progress and recognition of behavior that goes above and beyond are really important. Creating a compelling business case that includes risk management (of reputation or compliance, for example), expense reduction, staff satisfaction and, if possible, revenue opportunities will get the attention of management and accelerate action.

It’s also important to make sustainability understandable at a personal level. People generally want to be a part of something bigger than themselves, something they believe matters. IT professionals are uniquely positioned to help fight global warming because technologies of many types (such as sensors, electronic replacements for paper, control system software, server virtualization, telecommuting) can be implemented as elements of a broad array of solutions that make our companies more environmentally friendly. Almost everyone in the organization can get excited about these types of projects. Our challenge as leaders is to create the conditions that channel this energy in a positive way.