Fujitsu manages over 500,000 ICT assets for customers in Australia and New Zealand, with an annual power and cooling bill of over $42 million and carbon emissions of 150,000 tonnes. Most organizations have an average ICT sustainability score of 53 out of 100, while best practice is 80. Fujitsu worked with customers like Meridian Energy and Qantas to improve their scores through benchmarking, workshops identifying improvement projects, and setting targets to achieve best practice within a year. Meridian achieved a score of 80+ through initiatives like a green IT policy, procurement standards, and executive support. Achieving best practice can save up to $16 million and reduce emissions by 60,000 tonnes annually.

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Achieving Global Best Practice in ICT Sustainability
FujitsuAustralia & New Zealand (FANZ), Sustainability Solutions
Lee Stewart
Head of Sustainability, FujitsuAustralia and New Zealand
Abstract: Energyisacostandimpostonallbusinesses,theenvironment,societyandindividuals. Thequestionfor
CIO’s in Australia and New Zealand is why does only 1 in 15 understand fully the energy impacts of operating their
ICT? InAustraliaandNewZealandFujitsumanagesover500,000ICTassetswhichhaveapowerandcoolingbillof
over $42M per year. The environmental impact is over 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) which is
equalto the impactof13,600homes. Addressing thisunsustainable problemfacingCIOsandreducing the impactof
ICTrequiresarobustandpragmaticapproachthatdistilscredibleandrelevantinformationtotheCIOandhisorher
team. With knowledge comes power to affect change. Our proven approach to empowering CIOs involves the use of
benchmarkinganalysis,frameworkanddevelopedIPmixedwithtargetedmessagingandengagementstrategies.
EnablingallourcustomersinAustraliaandNewZealandtoachieveglobalbestpracticeinICTSustainabilityviaour
established framework can deliver benefit dividends of up to $16M in energy cost reductions and an emission
reduction of 60,000 tonnes of CO2e. Our goal as a global ICT leader should be to work with all customers to educate
them on the importance of taking ownership of the impacts of ICT and lead them towards global best practice,
reinforcingourfundamentalbeliefthatsustainabilityisgoodforbusiness and that innovative ICT will enable us
to create a prosperous, low-carbon future.
Keywords: ICT Sustainability, Framework, Messaging, Speed Thinking
1. Preface
1.1 Current Situation
Currently FANZ manages over 500,000 ICT assets on
behalf of our customers. This asset portfolio requires
them to invest in excess of $42M annually to power
and is responsible for approximately 150,000 tonnes of
carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) pollution per year
which is equal to the emissions of over 13,600 average
homes. CO2e is a green-house gas and major
contributor to global warming. If our customers were
to achieve global best practice in ICT Sustainability
they would achieve up to 40% savings on their ICT
energy bill which could exceed $16M per year. The
collective environmental benefit would be reducing
emissions by 60,000 tonnes of C02e, a benefit equal to
80% of the total annual emissions produced by FANZ.
In the 2012 Fujitsu ICT Sustainability Index (ITSx)
the average score by organisations assessed across the
eight countries included in the study was 53.1. With a
score of 80 plus identified by The Royal Melbourne
Institute of Technology and partners Connection
Research as global best practice; the ICT industry as a
whole still has a lot of work to do. This paper
examines what it takes to achieve global best practice
and how organisations can move from an average
score to best in class in the space of 12 months.
1.1 Key Subjects
The key subjects covered in this paper include; ICT
Sustainability Benchmarking, the Fujitsu ICT
Sustainability Framework, gaining Executive
Engagement, Strategic Alignment, conducting
Innovative Workshops and the Business Language of
Sustainability.

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1.2 The Approach Taken
The insights presented in this paper are empirical
findings drawn from client engagements where we
have delivered ICT Sustainability consulting services
using a consistent methodology based upon the ITSx
Benchmarking Tools. The key findings of this report
have been drawn from engagements with Meridian
Energy in New Zealand and Qantas Airways,
Australia’s National Airline. Both organisations have
a strong commitment to sustainability and share a
similar ethos and philosophy with Fujitsu. A common
challenge faced by ICT leaders within our clients is
how to determine whether the ICT department is
doing a good job in terms of sustainability and being
able to objectively answer questions such as:
 What were our key areas of strengths and
weaknesses?
 How do we compare to similar sized companies
both locally and globally?
 What is considered best practice for us?, and
 What do we need to do to get there?
2. Benchmarking Methodology
By using the ITSx benchmarking methodology,
tailored stakeholder surveys and our growing
knowledge base of learning’s we can determine the
level of ICT Sustainability Maturity within
organisations. The overall framework incorporates
attitudes, policies, practices, and technologies as
outlined below.
Fig.1 ICT Sustainability Benchmarking Framework
The survey involves targeted users answering 60
questions and 6 to 8 key stakeholder interviews
(dependent on organizational size and stakeholder
availability). What is important is to ensure
stakeholder interviews include representation from
Environment or Sustainability, Procurement, HR and
Finance leadership so insights are not limited to or
influenced by potentially insular ICT worker
view-points. The interview process itself is also a
unique engagement tool as it usually sparks
discussion and comments about what can and should
be done in the organisation. Once all the interviews
are completed the scores are then assessed via the
benchmark framework and then individual ratings
between 0 – 100 are given across the five key areas of:
1. Equipment Lifecycle
2. End User Computing
3. Enterprise and Data Centre
4. ICT as a Low-Carbon Enabler
5. Metrics
The organisation is then given a single ITSx score
based on the cumulative assessment of the five.
Further analysis is done to identify key strengths and
weaknesses, along with a list of short and long term
recommendations.
3. Taking a Different Approach
In the case of Meridian Energy an above average ITSx
score of 60.1 was achieved which was good for the
industry but below the best practice score of 80. Being
a 100% renewable energy company and sustainability
being a part of organisational DNA, we knew this
result would be disappointing to the CIO and the ICT
organisational as a whole. As a result of the
relationships built with key stakeholders over the
engagement a decision was taken to innovate our
engagement model rather than simply delivering on
our required engagement outputs which we knew
would leave the CIO with questions to answer. The
innovation consisted of investing to develop an
internal communications plan and message for the
ICT team. This plan focused on the following key
areas:
 Highlighting the areas of weakness
 Drafting a results chain roadmap which

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maps out the pathway towards global best
practice
 Documenting the key points, activities that
link to the existing framework which can
guide Meridian
 Using subtle messages that global best
practice was achievable with most of the
recommendations being policy driven and
requiring very little capital expenditure.
By planning out the key messages and literally
putting ourselves in the shoes of the CIO, and the
organisation as a whole, we were able to accurately
empathise with the customer’s sustainability goals
and deliver a strong message that turned potential
disappointment into a substantive positive outcome
with an addressable action plan to enable the
organisational target-state for sustainability to be
achieved. As a result of the thought-leadership
demonstrated, the CIO had the confidence to make a
commitment to achieve global best practice within the
next 12 months. This was also documented in their
2012 Annual Report and was later included in the
KPI’s of a number of key ICT staff.
4. Innovative Workshops
Momentum is critical and to follow up the
commitment to improve an organisation’s ITSx score
it is important to facilitate a workshop to identify the
projects, work packages and roles and responsibilities
within the team. For Meridian a one day workshop
was conducted in mid 2012 where we tested a number
of new techniques and also utilised ITIL tools such as
the RACI model which determines who is Responsible,
Accountable, Consulted and Informed as well as
existing organisational project management processes.
The key differentiator in this workshop was using a
new technique called “Speed Thinking”. The system
developed by Dr Ken Hudson is best described as:
“A generative thinking system that enables
individuals or groups to improve and accelerate the
pace at which they create, solve, decide an act”.
The system consists of a two minute and 9 possibility
structure which is shown below.
Figure 2: Speedlinks Worksheet
You have 2 minutes to get up to nine ideas down for
any set problem, question or idea. As there is always a
great deal of information and bias to navigate through
in a one day workshop the speed thinking technique is
extremely valuable in getting all key ideas out and
prioritised with group consensus.
For each of the five sections mentioned in the
benchmarking methodology the results of all were
presented to the group and a discussion was
facilitated on what is best practice. Following that
discussion the following simple three step process was
run using a combination of speed thinking, group
consensus and the ITIL model (RACI).
Fig.3: Three Step Workshop Process
At the end of the one day workshop the customer’s
team has identified key projects that all have
responsible stakeholders identified across RACI and
the relevant supporting network determined.

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To close out the workshop three final speed thinking
exercises are put to the group based on the following
questions:
 What are the key blockages to you achieving
global best practice?
 What are the key success factors?
 What would Achieving Global Best Practice
do for you and the organisation?
By finishing up the one day workshop with everyone
in the room having knowledge of the key blockages,
knowing the critical success factors, and being able to
visualise success not only built a strong vision and
direction but also embedded a strong emotional
attachment to success.
A benefit of building such as an emotive connection
with the workshop stakeholders is that a greater level
of insights are shared establishing us as a trusted
advisor and deemed a critical stakeholder to the
organisational realising its sustainability objectives.
This role establishes an on-going opportunity for
delivering value-add services.
Feedback from the one day workshops typically
received satisfaction ratings in excess of 80% with
much of the credit being able to be attributed to the
use of the Speed Thinking System.
5. Using a Framework to Embed a Sustainability
Culture
The Fujitsu ICT Sustainability Framework was
originally developed in 2007 by Alison Rowe who is
now the Global Executive Director Sustainability. It is
an extremely effective tool that is continuously tested
and evolved with the learning’s of each engagement
delivered. Currently the framework was delivered in
five distinct phases as shown below:
Fig.4 Fujitsu ICT Sustainability Framework
From the recent experience at Meridian, supported by
engagements with Qantas, it is recommended that
the framework undergoes the following
enhancements:
 Include the global benchmarking survey into
the StrategicAlignment Phase
 Combine the areas of strategic alignment and
ITAssessment into one core activity
 Include developing specific internal
messaging as a core deliverable
 Before progressing to the strategy
development phase an intimate
understanding of the drivers influencing the
following is gained:
o ITSx Score
o ICT Energy Spend
o ICT Emissions
 Strategy Development includes a workshop
that uses “Speed Thinking” and the RACI
model
6. Applying the Lessons Learnt
Qantas is a major Fujitsu customer that has gone
through the benchmarking and framework process. A
presentation was made to the CIO recently and the
team was able to present three key numbers:
 56.2 (ITSx Score)
 $1.9M (Annual energy spend)
 15,000 (Annual CO2e emissions from ICT)
By having tangible numbers for Qantas sustainability
metrics, background experience and learning’s from
Meridian we were able to succinctly articulate to the
Qantas CIO the key benefits of achieving global best
practice which will result in an estimated $200,000
energy savings per year and reduction of 3,000 tonnes
of CO2e. By also engaging stakeholders outside of ICT
and meeting with the Head of Environment we were
able to directly link a successful ICT Sustainability
Program to the Qantas Environmental targets and
articulate how the program will support the

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organisations non-negotiable core principle of
environmental sustainability.
The result was in a 20 minute presentation to the CIO
we were able to get his agreement on setting the goal
of global best practice for the upcoming financial year.
7. What does Global Best Practice Look Like?
In June 2013, 12 months after the initial commitment
made by Meridian Energy to achieve global best
practice we re-conducted the benchmarking
assessment on the same group of people.
Along with the usual questions I asked how the
program was going?And what worked well?
The CIO provided some key insights into how the
program has been going and attributed the progress
to three key factors:
 They had an internal champion who drove
the project and kept it on the teams agenda
 Everyone understood their role and
responsibilities from the workshop
 The success of the ICT Sustainability
program was incorporated into staff
objectives and was part of their KPI’s
Meridian Energy has now achieved global best
practice and along with the CIO comments the
following attributes are the key factors to their
success:
 Regular project meetings
 Sustainability is a standard agenda item on
monthly team meetings
 Developed a Green IT Policy that is well
communicated and advertised both internally
and to key suppliers
 Include an environmental officer on their
procurement panel
 Incorporated global energy efficiency
standards into their ICT procurement process
 Included sustainability governance into all ICT
projects
 Know their ICT energy use and are piloting power
management software
 Have strong staff engagement and executive support
8. Conclusion
Credible and robust data with effective broad
stakeholder engagement are key to building a
successful ICT Sustainability Strategy. The
foundation of the strategy is the benchmarking
assessment and this is supported by making four
other suggested changes to the Fujitsu ICT
Sustainability Framework which include; combining
strategic alignment and IT assessment into one core
activity; internal messaging; the three key numbers of
the ITSx Score, ICT Energy Use and Emissions;
innovative workshops incorporating speed thinking
and the RACI model.
Additional client engagements are required to
continue the validation of this theory and evolution of
our ITSx framework and methodology. The true
validation and measure on the effectiveness of our
approach should be in the number of clients reaching
global best practice and an increase in future ITSx
Index scores. Qantas will be the next organisation
where we will re-validate this theory and as with each
client engagement we are fine tuning the framework
and our approach. More research is also required to
support companies beyond reaching best practice and
the next practical steps and areas to focus on them
being truly sustainable organisations.
Overall the opportunities for us to continually add
value to our customers using our ICT Sustainability
Framework are immense. Not only does this provide a
unique opportunity to improve our customers bottom
line it also builds significant brand recognition and
directly links to our corporate philosophy of building a
prosperous, low carbon future with our customers.

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Reference
[1] Peter Senge, 2010, The Necessary Revolution, Nicholas Brealey
Publishing, Pages 102,103,263 & 264
[2] Eric Lowitt, 2011, The Future of Value, Jossey-Bass A Wiley
Imprint, Pages 28,29 & 71-76
[3] Lawrence Webber & Michael Wallace, 2009, Green Tech, How to
Plan and Implement Sustainable ICT Solutions, AMACOM,
Pages 29 & 30
[4] Dr Ken Hudson, 2010, Speed Thinking, Allen & Unwin, Pages
3,4,5,96 & 98
[5] Luis Neves & Mike Bereners-Lee; Dec 2012, SMARTer2020:
The Role of ICT in Driving a Sustainable Future, Version, Global
e-sustainability Initiative (GeSI), page 20, 21 , 23
[6] Eliot Metzger, Samantha Putt Del Pino, Sally Prowitt, Jenna
Goodward, Alexander Perera, 2012, sSWOT A Sustainability
SWOT, World Resources Institute, Pages 18 & 19
Appendix
ICT Sustainability, The Global Benchmark Report 2012, Fujitsu
and Connection Research, Foreword byAlison Rowe
ICT Sustainability, The Global Benchmark Report 2011, Fujitsu
and Connection Research, Foreword byAlison Rowe
Fujitsu Cloud Sustainability – Is The Cloud Green – Whitepaper,
Alison Rowe,Andy Lewis, Chris Flanagan