IBM, Sigma Six, and the Cult of Green
August 18, 2008 at 1:13 pm | Filed under: Recycling News, TechnoBlog
IBM introduces a new consulting service today aimed at helping corporations measure and manage energy consumption and waste-water generation. IBM has made significant offerings in the way of helping to reduce data center costs and increase environmental responsibility.
While this latest effort could be as effective as earlier offerings I am skeptical. The service is named “Green Sigma” which sounds very pseudo-science like either a new Marvel franchise or an off-shoot of Scientology. The glowing press release seems short on key details yet oddly pushing others like the fact that IBM has, “saved 4.6 billion kWh of electricity and $310 million in costs, and avoided over three million metric tons of CO2 emissions since 1990.” That is great and all (I mean who wouldn’t like to save their business over 17 million a year?) but a lot has changed in nearly twenty years. It is hard to put too much stock in a such a broad statistic when talking about a dynamic arena like the IT industry. The Sigma Six processes also sound a lot like common sense–measure, rinse, repeat. What about free measurement software, web-trials, and case studies? Given what such a service from IBM is likely to cost, I am very underwhelmed by this announcement from a normally impressive contender.
Not to knock down industry leaders as they start to well, lead, but this new consulting initiative from IBM along with Dell’s recent announcement of becoming “carbon neutral” begs the question, what constitutes real corporate responsibility? And what is just a quick coat of greenwashing?
