This research entails an audit of the ICT systems within an organisation to determine the environmental impact of flexible working on the organisation’s carbon footprint. The study reviews current issues and methodologies in the green ICT sector before providing an overview of the research process. Questionnaires and observations are employed for the investigation on employee working habits. A number of energy consumption measuring tools such as Joulemeter, Powermeter, and SusteIT are used to audit energy consumption of laptops, monitors and phones used by the organisation. This research reveals that working from home has a lower carbon footprint than working in the office primarily due to commuting-related energy consumption. Approximately 20% of the organisation’s staff work from home. The organisation’s annual carbon footprint is 31,509kg of CO2 emissions taking into consideration IT equipment and travel-related emissions. The recommendation is to allow more staff to work from home with given guidelines on the responsible handling of IT equipment in order to reduce their energy consumption. It is recommended that further study be undertaken in order to gain a detailed carbon footprint report.

Authors: Joseph Thackray, Ah-Lian Kor, Colin Pattinson, Lesley Earle

Published in: World Congress on Sustainable Technologies (WCST-2017)

• Date of Conference: 11-14 December 2017
• DOI: 10.20533/WCST.2017.0009
• ISBN: 978-1-908320-78-0
• Conference Location: University of Cambridge, UK