Green Information Systems Refraction for Corporate Ecological Responsibility Reflection in ICT Based Firms: Explicating Technology Organization Environment Framework

Introduction

Green Information Systems (IS) practice adoption has become one of the latest initiatives adopted by organizations to reduce cost incurred and lessen energy consuming of Information Technology (IT) infrastructures (Loeser et al., 2017). Since 2007, Green IS has become an important concept in various domains as such Information Communications Technology (ICT) based firms are beginning to adopt Green IS initiatives (Brooks et al., 2012; Loeser, 2013). But, over the decade existing contribution towards Green IS has either focused on exploring how to make IT Greener by addressing energy management issues (Melville, 2010), implementing energy efficient technologies, as well as examining diverse approaches in which IS can support ecological friendly operations (Molla, 2013; Bokolo et al., 2018). Respectively, Green information systems refraction can contribute to corporate ecological responsibility by providing information to practitioners in organization regarding the implications of their behaviour towards promoting sustainable initiatives (Dalvi-Esfahani et al., 2017a).

Respectively, an IT manager who is aware of the ecological implications of his or her organization might come to a different resolution than one who does not care about the environmental conservation (Molla et al., 2014). But on the contrary, Green IS refraction in ICT based firms depends on IT mangers’ acknowledgment of the need to respond towards ecological issues (Gholami et al., 2013). This is because action occurs only when organization recognizes that events such as global warming and climatic changes require response such as Green IS refraction for ecological friendly practices within the firm (Recker, 2016). For instance, usage of web-based video conference results to power reduction depends on the belief that decreasing CO2 emissions is important to corporate ecological responsibility (Meachan et al., 2013; Boudreau et al, 2008). Therefore, sustainability related action in any enterprise is supported when environmental beliefs of IT practitioners and IT manager are same across the firm (Dalvi-Esfahani et al., 2017b). Besides, Green IS refraction in ICT based firms mostly concerns the deployment of IT related facilities to diminish and mitigate e-wastes that occurs throughout organizational activities (Bokolo et al., 2018).

Thus, Green IS refraction initiatives involve innovative use of IS to lessen pollution generated by enterprise activities in mitigating greenhouse gasses (Schmidt et al., 2010; Bokolo et al., 2018a). Furthermore, Green IS refraction in ICT based firms may include usage of IS towards innovative energy assessment such as usage of telematics applications to decrease organization’s carbon footprint (Ainin et al., 2016). Accordingly, Green IS may further involve the deploying of innovative programs to transform enterprise environment by integrating practices that preserve the natural resources (Seidel et al., 2010; Lei and Ngai, 2014). But, congruent with Loeser et al. (2017) the main benefits of Green IS can be cost decrease from ethical natural resource utilization, improved revenues from a positive corporate status, and technological infrastructure that result in eco-friendly products that facilitate economic viability.