In a briefing to the Obama transition team in December, IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano recommended that Obama require that all federal data centers go green in three years.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Obama advisers had asked IBM shortly after the election to give a briefing about what impact investing in IT could have on job creation. In response, Palmisano made his presentation in a conference call.
Most of the call was devoted to how an investment in technology could create jobs. IBM had worked with the think tank the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation to look at three areas: broadband, IT related to health care, and smart grid technologies to make electric power more efficient.
IBM told the Obama tteam that spending $10 billion for broadband networks to give high-speed Internet access to locations that now don't have it would create 498,000 jobs in a year. Investing $10 billion in health-related IT would create 212,000 jobs. And investing $10 billion in a smart grid would create 239,000 jobs.
Doing all that, of course, takes legislation. But according to the Journal article, Palmisano was also asked what steps the Obama administration could take that didn't require Congressional action. The article says:
Mr. Palmisano suggested an executive order mandating that the government convert all its data center to be "green" data centers, optimized for energy efficiency, within three years.
Here's hoping that Obama follows the advice. Not only would it directly help the environment and save the federal government money, but it would spur private enterprise to follow suit as well.
White House photo CC-licensed by Flickr user ~MVI~