Question 1
Discuss three major drivers that motivate organizations to introduce green IT initiatives.
The idea of green technology has been around for many years following the trend of green movement which has been raising its hype over the past decade. Green IT refers to the study and practice of using computers and IT resources in a more efficient and environmentally responsible way (McCabe, 2009). It focuses on reducing the environmental impact of industrial processes and innovative technologies caused by the Earth’s growing population. Mainly this means creating fully recyclable products, reducing pollution, proposing alternative technologies in various fields, and creating a center of economic activity around technologies that benefit the environment (Gingichashvili, 2007).
Molla (2008) identified three generic forces that can influence the adoption of Green IT — economic forces, regulatory forces, and ethical forces.
Economic forces refer to the need for pursuing internal efficiency and market performance (Molla, et al., 2009). A research reveals that cost is the overriding factor for 70% of small businesses IT decision makers to invest in green technologies (Silcock, 2010). Green technology offers the same functionality as traditional technology, and for much the same up-front price. However, it also adds a host of additional benefits in terms of costs, technology and its influence on the organization. For example, green networking switches use less energy and so generate less heat. This results in less maintenance, a longer lifespan and a greatly reduced total cost of ownership (TCO), above the reduced energy costs green technology provides (Davies, 2011). As corporate grow larger in size, the demand for more data processing and storage capability continues to grow, the costs to accomplish those needs is becoming an additional challenge. The need for reducing the power, cooling and real estate costs and increasing data centre efficiency might drive some organizations to turn to Green IT (Molla, et al., 2009).
Regulatory forces are critical in demanding adherence to green or environmentally responsible behaviors or initiatives (Molla, et al., 2009). The emphasis here is on actions that are induced because of the need to meet certain regulatory (both mandatory and voluntary) demands (Molla, 2008). According to Molla (2008), a number of national, professional and inter-governmental institutions are producing guidelines related to green ICTs. Examples include The Common wealth of Australia Green Office Guide (Common wealth of Australia, 2001); US’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiative to study energy use in data centres (Mullins, 2006); Australian Computer Society’s (ACS) policy statement on Green ICT (ACS, 2007); European Commission directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). These regulations might be changed or revised in the future, which could as well impact the organizational practice of Green IT.
Ethical forces, as described by Molla (2008), refers to the pursuit of socially responsible business practices and good corporate citizenship. It can be explained in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR). As the hype of green acts has been progressively increasing in popularity over the past few years, the infusion of green movement has taken a place in corporate world. Businesses are increasingly seeking social recognition as concerned entities of global and local communities (Molla, 2008). A company that is responding to a societal concern by changing business processes or offering new services and products generally receives coverage from local, national and sometimes global media outlets. The positive articles and reports put the company's name in the minds of the general public, and the business did not have to pay for advertisements to spread the word (Assad, 2011).
Economic, ethical and regulatory drivers can determine the basic motives for Green IT adoption. The locus of the force (whether internal or external or both) however depends on a business’s technological, organizational and environmental contexts and on its readiness for Green IT (Molla, 2008).

Question 2
Discuss two key benefits and two major problems that organizations are likely to experience in developing/implementing their Green IT initiatives.
Conservation initiatives are indeed appealing, but going green can have implementation and long-term impacts (Acevedo, 2010). As indicated by Acevedo (2010), while the implementation of Green IT is considered as a notion which can lead to immediate savings, going green can result in a long payback period on green investments, higher support costs and a reliance on professionals for support and ongoing maintenance.
Cost many environmentally-based green projects require significant funding for implementation and installation. Green initiatives take longer period to break-even. Furthermore, the cost of maintenance and support can be higher than the usual which lead to increasing cost. Also, considering the fact that some product and equipment are significantly different than more established products, parts and supplies can be limited, corporate may need more outlay to cover this (Acevedo, 2010).
Professional inadequacy as mentioned in the previous point, some product and equipment for going green can be significantly different than more established products. This can require specialized training and experience to diagnosis, repair, and maintain green equipment. Green technology may involve complicated processes and new terms that require advanced education to understand. Installing green products or using newer green technology can make it difficult to troubleshoot products, perform routine maintenance or understand the corporate true needs and product requirements (Acevedo, 2010).
Although there are cons regarding the Green IT implementation, there are also visible benefits which can draw corporate to take a decision to be in part of.
Cost-efficiency information and communications technology (ICT) represents a significant consumer of electricity and thereby a significant source of carbon emissions. Recent estimates put the contribution of global ICT use to global warming as comparable with the aviation industry, and this is expected to increase with even greater penetration of ICT and increasing data storage and processing (Nightingale, 2011). Simply performing some small acts such as turning off the lights or electronic devices when is unused can actually minimize the total of energy usage and reduce carbon emission. Also, by greening the data centre or upgrading the IT infrastructure, the cost of operation can be reduce significantly for it provides a much more efficient process and lessen the cost of maintenance (e.g. cooling system).
Brand image Business leaders today are responding to growing concern about pollution, renewable energy etc. These “Green” policies by a company have become key success factor when doing businesses with most of the companies in developed and emerging economic countries. “Going Green” create a good corporate image and build credibility for businesses in international arena (Sharma, 2009). A study done by Chang and Fong (2010) reveals that green corporate image had positive effects on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
Question 3
Currently there are a few universities (including Monash University) which are spearheading Green IT initiatives within the Australian tertiary education sector. Select any one Australian university of your choice which has introduced Green IT initiatives, and perform the following tasks: a) Discuss two key initiatives, which the selected university, has considered as a component of its Green IT practices.

Monash University has been starting its green IT initiatives since year 2008 and it is still ongoing until now. One of the key strategies is to reduce the energy usage through the development and design of more efficient data centers. According to the Monash website (2008), a new data centre was built in Caulfield and will also operate as a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity facility to ensure the ITS Division continues to provide service to staff 24/7. Construction was commenced late 2008 until 2009, with a budget of $10,700,000.
In 2009, Monash University was collaborating with the University of Melbourne, RMIT University and Fujitsu Australia to develop a shared IT data centre that will make a significant contribution to cutting greenhouse gas emissions (Dang, 2009). Mitchell (2007) explains that green data centres do not just save energy; they also reduce the need for expensive infrastructure upgrades to deal with increased power and cooling demands. This data centre, according to Wikipedia (2011), is recognized as Australia's first low carbon emission and energy-efficient technology data centre. The consolidation project is the first stage in a long-term view by the Universities to create a shared pool of computing resources to be delivered under a "cloud computing" model (Winterford, 2009). Nguyen (2011), stated that the adaptation of cloud computing will allow users to access products and services like applications and data storage remotely. By storing and running processes on the “cloud,” websites can share the resources stored on a wide network of servers, which can keep them from going idle and wasting the energy used to power them. The sharing of costs and resources amongst so many users will also allow for efficiencies and cost savings around things like performance, load balancing, and even locations (locating data centers and infrastructure in areas with lower real estate costs, for example) (Schneider, n.d.).

The next initiative is to engage the society of the university by conducting education campaign. Without the participation and coordination from all components across faculties and campuses, the whole campaign would yield nothing but meaningless effort. For the purpose of the campaign, a green logout message from my.monash was deployed in 2008, asking students to switch off their computers if no longer in use and wallpaper on ITS student lab computers was also changed to an environmental message. In addition, a Steering Committee was established as well as building and maintaining a Green IT website and blog (Monash University, 2009). Monash has been encouraging the school society to set the printing option with duplex and black and white as default since 2008 in order to reduce the paper disposal (Monash University, 2009). The overall purpose of this implementation is to create a positive impact to students and encourage them to save resources and power energy.

b) Do the initiatives discussed in Q3a) represent instances of intended, deliberate, or emergent strategy? Discuss.

The implementation of Green IT in Monash University is considered to be a combination of intended and deliberate strategies. It is intended strategy because the initiatives for Green IT were initially planned for action in 2008 and the following years, classified into both short-term and long-term actions. And once the intentions were set, it was carefully put into details and clearly formulated how it is going to be executed. Hence, it becomes deliberate strategy. Deliberate strategy is simply an intended strategy which has been clearly worked out in detail and is deliberately chosen (Rahim, 2011). It comprises an evaluation of risks, external factors and changes that may happen in the future application.
These strategies begin with an idea, a plan is then developed, the plan is communicated, and some form of action(s) follows. The purpose is to create and maintain a long term definable position that results in competitive advantage within the market (Anonymous, 2010).

c) Highlight the importance of the development of Green IT initiatives (discussed in Q3a) in terms of Porter’s (1985) three types of strategies (i.e. cost leadership, differentiation, and niche).

According to Porter, there are three generic strategies that a company can undertake to attain competitive advantage:

Figure 1. Source: www.mindtools.com * Cost leadership
Cost leadership as stated in Mind Tools (n.d.) is about minimizing the cost to the organization of delivering products and services. The cost or price paid by the customer is a separate issue. There are two main ways of achieving this within a Cost Leadership strategy: 1) Increasing profits by reducing costs, while charging industry average prices. 2) Increasing market share through charging lower prices, while still making a reasonable profit on each sale because you've reduced costs.
It is important to note that a company might be a cost leader but that does not necessarily imply that the company's products would have a low price. In certain instances, the company can for instance charge an average price while following the low cost leadership strategy and reinvest the extra profits into the business (Papers4You, n.d.) * Differentiation
Differentiation involves making your products or services different from and more attractive those of your competitors. How you do this depends on the exact nature of your industry and of the products and services themselves, but will typically involve features, functionality, durability, support and also brand image that your customers value (Mind Tools, n.d.)

* Niche / Segmentation / Focus
Niche strategy is also known as segmentation/focus strategy. While a corporate cannot afford either a wide scope cost leadership or a wide scope differentiation strategy, a niche strategy could be more suitable to use. Here an organization focuses effort and resources on a narrow, defined segment of a market. A company could use either a cost focus or a differentiation focus (Marketing Teacher, n.d.).
With a cost focus a firm aims at being the lowest cost producer in that niche or segment. With a differentiation focus a firm creates competitive advantage through differentiation within the niche or segment (Marketing Teacher, n.d.).

Analyzing from cost leadership perspective, Green IT initiatives have enabled the university to gain profit by reducing the operational cost. Previously, the old data centres were known to use up approximately 50% of the total energy usage from IT sector. By possessing new energy-efficient data centres, it will help reducing the electricity expense because they require less energy usage. And since it emits less amount of greenhouse gas (GHG), it contributes to alleviate the work of the cooling system, thus less maintenance required. Furthermore, Monash has always been trying to involve the school society into the practices of the Greent IT initiative. Simply putting a green logout message from my.monash portal, encourage students to set the printing setting to duplex option, or to log off the unused desktop have already benefitted the university from the decreasing money spent on paper supply and electricity bill. Beside the fact that those initiatives can cut off the operational cost, it is environmentally safe too.
From the differentiation aspect, there weren’t plenty of universities applying Green IT practices (green logout message, duplex printing, etc.) when the practices were first started at Monash Universities in 2008. Monash was one of the few universities which are spearheading the Green IT initiatives, one of the few with the green university image. What makes it more stand out is the existence of the green data centre (shared with RMIT and University of Melbourne) that was built in the late 2009 which is known as the Australia's first low carbon emission and energy-efficient technology data centre. Up till now, there are not a large amount of corporate adopt this technology, specifically in education sector.
In view of the fact that more and more universities are adapting Green IT initiatives, some practices might not be as unique as they were. A lot more instances are getting aware of environmental issues and following the step of the forerunners. Thus, Monash need to focus its strategy to a specific point that is not yet taken by many. Some simple Green IT practices such as duplex printing or displaying green logout message are effortless and easy to imitate. Thus, the green data centre is another option to be focus because, up till now, there are not many within the education industry which has this sort of green technology. As described in question 3a, the development of the joint data centre takes at least $60million. The three universities joining the project are planning to expand the size by approximately 100metres per year starting 2011 following the increasing amount of data they need to handle. Certainly, a large amount of resources are needed to cover the expense. The saving that is obtained from the other Green IT practices might also be used to support the spending on data centre.

d) Explain the development of the Green IT initiatives (discussed in Q3a) at the selected university in terms of such key concepts as resource heterogeneity and resource immobility discussed in the Resource Based View of Firms (an important theoretical lens to understand IT strategy).

Green IT initiatives in terms of Resource Based View of Firms (RBV): * Resource Heterogeneity
Pertains to whether a firm owns a resource or capability that is also owned by numerous other competing firms, then that resource cannot provide a competitive advantage (Brown, 2007). On the other hand, when a firm possesses a resource or capability that is not currently possessed by competing firms, the condition of resource heterogeneity is met, and a firm may obtain at least a temporary competitive advantage (Rahim, 2011).

* Resource immobility
A concept that if a resource is easy to obtain by competitors because the cost of developing, acquiring or using that resource is relatively low, then that resource cannot provide a competitive advantage (Brown, 2007).

In the context of green IT, the shared data centre with the two other leading Victoria universities; University of Melbourne and RMIT is the technological asset of Monash University. This data centre is the first which allies three top universities and also the pioneer of energy-efficient technology data centre that generates low carbon emission in Australia. The adaptation of cloud computing to the data centre will enhance the performance and assist in cost reduction (e.g. maintenance cost, cooling system). Thus, the condition of resource heterogeneity is met. The implementation can be a new benchmark for other universities to follow. As long as only a small number of competitors adopt this type of Green IT solutions for their businesses, the university can achieve a competitive advantage by being an early adopter of ecologically friendly and energy efficient IT solutions (e.g., low carbon emission data centre).
This condition might not stay forever as many other universities might consider building the similar kind, so that asset is said to be a temporary competitive advantage. In this way, the resource immobility condition is necessary. Resource immobility denotes whether the differences of the resource or capability that is owned by a firm can be long-lasting or if it can be easily imitated by other competitors. The implementation of the new shared data centre as an application of Green IT practices is very valuable and sustainable as it provides the university with a cost-effective, power-efficient, and resilient infrastructure that can be utilized for a long period of time. Since it has not yet been adopted by a large number of universities, it is still relatively rare within the industry and can help them maintain their competitive advantage. The project of the shared data centre itself is a 10 years plan which costs $60million for the whole implementation. The prediction also says that an additional 100 square metres of space will be needed every year, with the first expansion planned for 2011 (Withers, 2009). This is quite a colossal project that demands a bulk amount of money, resources and time. But still, it might not be impossible for others to duplicate due to the fast changing of technology. Others might be able to implement other alternatives that offer the same functionality or even better. Because of this, Monash University need to continuously seek innovation to attain sustained competitive advantage.
The other initiative, as mentioned in question 3a, is to engage the school society by giving educational campaign. It is simply putting a green logout message from my.monash portal, encourage students to set the printing setting to duplex option, or to log off the unused desktop. Monash University is one of the few universities which are spearheading the Green IT initiatives. They have been trying to infuse this habit into the culture of the university since 2008. Though Monash University is trying to maintain to be in the lead in green solutions, still it is possible for other competitors to follow the step. The last initiative mentioned here is easy to follow and does not require much effort or resource as like developing an eco-friendly data centre. It will not be long until a lot more universities adapt the Green IT solutions.
Following this discussion, the adoption of the Green IT initiatives might not necessarily direct to sustained competitive advantage. However, by having it can at least assist the university to keep competitive in the industry environment.

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