IT business cases will include carbon remediation costs

By 2014, most IT business cases will include carbon remediation costs.

Market Implications:

Incorporating carbon costs into business cases will help provide organizations with a measure of savings, as well as help prepare organizations for increased scrutiny of their carbon impact.

Energy savings aside, the link between carbon dioxide (C02) emissions and climate change is widely accepted by politicians and mainstream media in developed economies. Therefore, policies are emerging that will penalize companies for CO2 emissions. These penalties could easily range of between $10 and $50 per ton of CO2 emitted. Incorporating carbon analysis gives a manager the ability to better understand the impact of policy changes on the business.

In practical terms, carbon costs shadow energy costs, requiring the addition of an emissions factor (carbon emissions per kWh) and a projected cost of carbon remediation. Therefore, updating the spreadsheets is a moderately simple task. As carbon emissions are a global issue, we expect most organizations to include carbon costs in IT business cases by 2014.