WITH the increasing concerns about the environment, many industries are being required to turn environmentfriendly or to ‘green-out' their activities. When it comes to the ICT industries, aspirations are quite different; not only are these industries asked to amend their own working strategies to cope with the environment, but they are expected to come up with solutions to the already-existing problems. “ICT affects the environment in many ways …quot; some are positive while others are negative,” Sherif Abdel-Rahim, the Chief of Minister's Technical Office at Egypt's Ministry of State for Environment Affairs, told a panel at the current Cairo ICT 2010. Cairo ICT, in its 14th version, was opened on Sunday, attracting hundreds of companies and visitors. This annual event wraps up today in Cairo International Conference Halls in Nasr City. “Although ICT's positive effects are quite more than its negatives, the latter are extremely dangerous in the long run,” Sherif added. As the majority of industries, the ICT sector has two key negative impacts on the environment. On one side, it produces harmful emissions, which can increase global warming with time, say experts. On the other hand, it produces …quot; along with its products …quot; harmful waste. “Green ICT is how to decrease the negative impact of ICT and strengthen its positive aspects,” Sherif stressed. That's why Green ICT will decrease carbon footprint, increase production, develop healthcare and decrease the consumption of energy and of raw materials and, consequently, waste, he added. The question is: How to use and benefit from green ICT? “Awareness is the keyword for Green ICT to succeed,” Sherif concluded. “People started to sense the importance and critical role of ICT recently with the swine flu fears, where schools and universities used modern technology to broadcast its educational materials. We should use such incidents to teach people more about how to save the environment.” According to the Egyptian official, creating new environment-friendly devices isn't enough if people don't know how to use it correctly. Taking the talk into the real life, Hoda Baraka, the First Deputy to Egypt's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, urged for cooperation between all different institutions of society. “There must be more co-operation with the civil society,” Hoda said. “Everywhere in the world initiatives taken in this regard are mainly driven by the civil society, not just governments or the private sectors.” The ICT sector is expected to decrease 15 per cent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions globally by 2020, through using and developing the so-called ‘green technology', according to the recent international report Smart 2020. “We measure our emissions regularly and do a lot of efforts to decrease it each three months,” commented Noha Saad, the Community Service and Foundation Manager in Vodafone Egypt. “We have over 200 signal-strengthening hubs operating on solar energy. This is just an example of how our governance goes in the place and that's why we are always calling people to understand and help saving the environment.” So far, ICT has contributed remarkably to curbing the environmental threats. Counting on e-mails and online publications throughout the past few years has played a huge role decreasing paper consumption and left more hope for forests to grow safer. As well, video conferences and chatting forums reduced the number of transportation trips, reducing traffic and pollution. “ICT has more to offer and that's why we expect more,” Noha remarked.
