An agenda for 'Green' information technology and systems research

Green information technologies and systems refer to initiatives and programs that directly or indirectly address environmental sustainability in organizations. Although practitioners have begun to focus on 'Green IT', there is little research in this area. To set the stage for this research, we develop a multilevel research framework to guide future research. To do so, we review the existing green information technology and systems literature, and also draw more broadly from research that addresses environmental sustainability in the management, environmental psychology, and social marketing domains. From this review, we identify important research gaps and present a set of propositions to guide future research

Green information technologies and systems: Employees' perceptions of organizational practices

In this study, we examine the extent to which employees recognize the importance of information technologies and systems (IT/S) in developing and implementing environmental initiatives. To address this question, we first review past research on this topic and draw on a framework for examining environmental motivating forces, strategies, and employee environmental orientations. We then analyze qualitative data based on in-depth interviews with employees in financial services organizations. Our aim is to develop a richer understanding of how employees currently view IT/S issues in relation to environmental sustainability and if similarities exist between different types of financial institutions. We also assess the extent to which these employee perceptions align with both actual organizational practices, as captured in interviews with information technology managers, and practices espoused by organizations, as reflected on their corporate websites. Our findings suggest that organizations are still in the infancy stage of awareness and adoption of "Green" IT/S. As a result, we identify four types of gaps: knowledge gaps, practice gaps, opportunity gaps, and knowing-doing gaps. We suggest that future research should draw on absorptive capacity, organizational learning, and social marketing theories to help align employees' attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors and to drive environmental changes

The Green IT Certification Ruled by the Infotercio Financial Model

Part 1: Knowledge-Based SustainabilityInternational audiencePresent article gives continuity to the elaboration of the infotercio financial model proposed as an alternative to implementing environmental management systems in governmental institutions based on the emission reduction of printed reports, source codes and forms originated from IT activities. It discusses procedures of green IT certification for managers and governmental institutions derived from ISO 14000 family and People CMM, combining both in a new set of requirements. Also it summarizes the reasons for such a certification system, noting that waste paper is now a major global problem, not only in terms of direct environmental impacts but from the point of view of the unreasonable and unnecessary use of paper in governmental business processes, generating high costs, mismanagements and time losses, at the same time causing reduction in the available physical space in corporate environments and increase in fuel consumption for transport

High-resolution profiling and discovery of planarian small RNAs

Freshwater planarian flatworms possess uncanny regenerative capacities mediated by abundant and collectively totipotent adult stem cells. Key functions of these cells during regeneration and tissue homeostasis have been shown to depend on PIWI, a molecule required for Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) expression in planarians. Nevertheless, the full complement of piRNAs and microRNAs (miRNAs) in this organism has yet to be defined. Here we report on the large-scale cloning and sequencing of small RNAs from the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea, yielding altogether millions of sequenced, unique small RNAs. We show that piRNAs are in part organized in genomic clusters and that they share characteristic features with mammalian and fly piRNAs. We further identify 61 novel miRNA genes and thus double the number of known planarian miRNAs. Sequencing, as well as quantitative PCR of small RNAs, uncovered 10 miRNAs enriched in planarian stem cells. These miRNAs are down-regulated in animals in which stem cells have been abrogated by irradiation, and thus constitute miRNAs likely associated with specific stem-cell functions. Altogether, we present the first comprehensive small RNA analysis in animals belonging to the third animal superphylum, the Lophotrochozoa, and single out a number of miRNAs that may function in regeneration. Several of these miRNAs are deeply conserved in animals