AIIA chief executive Sheryle Moon said that while environmental sustainability was the focus of media attention – and an important touchstone for the industry – technology needed to look at a broader concept of sustainability.
There were clear threats to the sustainability of the ICT industry, most of which were driven by three factors: falling ICT student enrolments, an increasingly competitive labor market, and the imminent retirement of the baby boomer generation, Ms Moon said.
While the reduction of ‘power in and carbon out’ is the focus of world media, the ICT industry needs to think more laterally about sustainability to remain economically viable and intellectually relevant, she said.
“Traditional ideas about sustainability are becoming too limiting as ICT enters a business era that is being slowly depleted by an industry brain-drain,” Ms Moon said.
“Retaining skills must become an integral part of the way that we think about environmental design in ICT, alongside all the things that we usually think of when we consider sustainable industry practice.”
“Foremost as an industry, ICT will need to address the health of our workplaces to attract and retain the skills that are needed in the future.”
Job stress and poor management practices have become all too common in modern business. These issues are strong drivers of absenteeism and significant factors in high staff turnover, she said. The ICT industry cannot afford this.
“Designing healthier workplaces will mean a return to the age-old management principles of establishing trust, communicating a clear vision, and setting goals and objectives that align with both corporate and individual values,” Ms Moon said.
“We cannot afford to sit idly by while problems that we have long been aware of eat into our most valuable resource, the skilled workforce. 2008 must become the year of the sustainable workplace,” Ms Moon concluded.
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