TOWARDS GREEN ICT DRIVEN ECONOMIES: ASSESSING THE GOVERNMENTS ROLE IN GREEN ICT ADOPTION

Abstract

This paper analyzes the role of the government in establishing green ICT within organizations. Looking at the practices currently adopted by governments, this paper identifies some of the most important areas through which the low carbon value added by new technologies could be increased. Drawing on evidence from other countries around the world, practitioners and from the academic community we can see that there are similarities between the approaches taken by a number of governments, but we can also see that this area of activity will need to be context-specific as well. As we move forward, areas of focus will become more obvious for particular countries and regions, where they have a unique role to play and can add more value. We achieve this by adopting two approaches. One is by investigating what other countries have done as regards to entrenching green ICT in their countries, second was by an analysis of the Kenyan context which took a case of the Kenyan government’s ministry of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and the national environmental management Authority (NEMA) to find out the extent of government support for businesses and the implementation of Green ICT within the core functions and departments of the organization. Data collection was then carried out within two major ICT consumer companies to find out the level of green ICT adoption within them and the way forward, as well as gauge the level of user awareness on green ICT concepts. The paper concludes by making recommendations which could help the government to invest more on green ICT, develop a green ICT policy to guide in green ICT adoption and support for organizations implementation of green ICT.