The Green Mile

So last week, our IT class took part in a discussion all about the green. Green IS. Green IS what? Green IS is designing and implementing information systems that contribute to sustainable business processes. I think this is one of the most important trends to study in today's society. The human population's ecological footprint has no doubt been growing exponentially since the industrial revolution. Furthermore, the Earth is four times as crowded as it was 100 years ago. That means that there are 4 times as many people trying to get in on those precious, nonrenewable resources. Therefore, we need to put all of our efforts into making our technology as efficient as possible in today's world. We need to use all of the information and systems in today's flat world to our advantage to learn as much as we can about our world and all of its components. I think there is much evidence that we're moving in the right direction, and also, I think that some of what is happening is an unintentional environmental sustainable conundrum. What I mean is this, with the creation of some basic consumer technologies, like the internet and websites, the iPhone and its Apps, etc., we get the green benefits by cutting down on phone books, paper maps, printed news papers, magazines, so on, so on, all of which will lead to less production of paper, and less deforestation. This is a nice side effect. But all in all, I think some of society is out there trying too. Many companies are using solar energy, green architecture to allow more natural light, thus less manufactured energy, recycled products, monitored emissions, and so on, and so on again. Green is the way to go, and it's our ticket into the future.