RIS ID
29512
Abstract
IT has a role to play in the current debate on climate change. The current discourse on IT and climate change views IT in a negative light, as a polluter. What remains unrecognized is the critical role of IT as a source of solutions to the climate change problem. We live in a massive, inter-connected Planet Earth Supply Chain. IT provides a range of tools to model, manage and optimize this supply chain. The University of Wollongong Carbon-Centric Computing Initiative (CCCI) seeks to seed a program of research that addresses the climate change problem with a range of computing technologies including (but not limited to): optimization technologies, supply chain management technologies, business process management/process improvement technologies, grid computing (e.g., utility grid) and virtualization technologies, ICT-enabled conferencing and collaboration technologies as well as ICT for knowledge sharing and network-centric advocacy. The contours of this new and exciting space for research and industry development are described in this report authored by three University of Wollongong academics: Prof. Aditya Ghose (Director, Decision Systems Lab, School of Computer Science and Software Engineering), A/Prof. Helen Hasan (Director, ATUL, School of Economics) and Prof. Trevor Spedding (Head, School of Management and Marketing). The report provides insights into a set of representative points within this new space. It describes how existing web infrastructure could be leveraged to devise the optimizing web — a massive, globally inter-connected network of optimizers helping support decisions that would reduce the global carbon footprint. It describes how computer simulation models can provide the basis for sustainable manufacturing and environmental management in the enterprise. It describes how IT based techniques can help support supply chain optimization audits to determine if and how value might be best derived from the judicious use of optimization technology. It describes the critical role ICT-enabled collaboration technologies can play in reducing the carbon footprint. It also addresses the key role ICT-based knowledge sharing and network-centric advocacy can play in obtaining broader social engagement in this debate. The report addresses the policy dimension to these issues and the need for an industry-academia consortium to drive such an agenda forward.
Publication Details
This report was originally published as Ghose, A, Hasan, H and Spedding, T, Carbon-centric Computing: IT Solutions for Climate Change - A report prepared by the University Working Group on the Carbon-centric Computing Initiative, University of Wollongong, 2008, 17p.