An empirical investigation into Green IT practices in the North West Provincial Government

Abstract

Climate change has been a topic for discussion in the IT industry. The IT (information technology) sector has been regarded as one of the contributing sectors towards climate change due to carbon emissions from IT equipment such as computers and servers. Environmental concerns are gaining incremental attention from organisations across the globe. Green IT is seen as part of the solution to this problem and has been defined and discussed by many researchers. The purpose of this study was to investigate Green IT practices that have been adopted in the NWPG (North West Provincial Government). The study focused on the three departments which fall under one central IT section in the department of the provincial treasury. A quantitative study was conducted in Mafikeng and questionnaires were distributed to collect the data and it was found that although end-users in the government sector are aware of Green IT, many still needed a lot of training on Green IT. The research concludes by suggesting strategies that might be adopted to improve IT use in the government sector.