Gratifying because IT professionals and the industry at large are starting to honestly engage with the idea of taking responsibility for the effects on the planet of what they do. Alarming because we’ve seen the bubbles and hype curves of IT before, and this is starting to feel like another one. Already I can begin to sense the backlash. Soon I expect be hearing more often what now comes out only occasionally: “Green IT, oh yeah, we’ve done that."

One of the first things I talk about in most of my speaking engagements these days what I see as two meta-trends for the 21st Century. The first trend is the imperative for creating new models for sustainable human life on earth. When I speak to environmentally-oriented audiences this point is generally taken as obvious and inarguable. The IT-oriented audiences tend to be skeptical and even hostile to the idea that there are limits to what we can do to people and the planet before things start to go seriously wrong.

The second meta-trend is the idea that Information and Communication Technology is going to be the main driver of social and economic change for the 21st century. That is, the “internet” (and the continuing realization of Moore’s Law) really is going to change everything. IT people generally believe this as an article of faith. Environmentalists tend to think it’s more than a little bit of exaggeration, if not just irrelevant.

The importance and meaning of “Green IT” is that both of these trends are real, inter-related, and will be a permanent fact of life for everyone alive on the Earth today. Initial estimates by well-known analysts put the global carbon footprint of the IT industry at 2-2.5% of the world’s total, equivalent to the airline industry. The footprint of the ICT industry, including networked consumer electronics, is actually much larger and growing at double-digit rates. And, carbon footprint is only one aspect of the overall eco-footprint.

At the same time, we are evolving to a networked world in which people and things are permanently and perpetually interconnected. ICT is woven into the fabric of everything we do, whether we see it or not. Even the basic science of climate change can only advance through the use of advanced sensing networks and complex climate models run on supercomputers.

So, if you think that you’ve “done” Green IT or that it’s irrelevant, it’s time for you to get acquainted with the other side. Techies meet the Environmentalists. You greenies, say hello to the geeks. You’ve both got a lot to learn from each other, and will be working together for a long time to come. You might as well get friendly.

Richard Hodges is the Founder and CEO of GreenIT, the first consultancy to incorporate the impact on the environment into a systemic and strategic approach to sustainability for Information and Communications Technology.