Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the beliefs and attitudinal factors that affect the private sphere pro-environmental behavior of information technology (IT) professionals in using personal computers. Design/methodology/approach – A research framework that draws from the belief-action-outcome (BAO) framework and that consisted of 11 hypotheses was developed. Data were collected from a sample of 322 IT professionals and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings – The results identify the pro-environmental personal computing actions that IT professionals are taking and how their Green IT beliefs, attitudes, information acquisition capability, and organizational fields influence their behavior. Research limitations/implications – The sample was limited to Australian respondents. The measurement of IT-specific environmental practices was not exhaustive nor were the measures of macro- and micro-antecedents of Green IT belief and attitude. Practical implications – National, regional, and international professional associations such as the Association of Information Systems can influence pro-environmental behavior among IT professionals through the creation and dissemination of information that shape both general and IT-specific environmental beliefs. Originality/value – The novelty of this work lies in: first, proposing and testing a research framework that can be leveraged in future studies; second, establishing how organizational fields and availability of information contribute to the formation of IT professionals’ environmental beliefs and attitudes; third, applying and suggesting potential extension to the BAO framework to evaluate the association between IT practices and environmental sustainability among IT professionals.

The realization that legacy information technology (IT) systems have environmental footprint has elevated the sustainability of IT (Green IT) as a significant IT management issue. However, there is a lack of empirical research to explain Green IT capabilities of organizations and the maturity of those capabilities. This article reports a Green IT Readiness framework to capture the input, transformational and output capabilities that organizations need to nurture in sustainable management of IT. It identifies five components of G-readiness and provides an exploratory framework and a research-ready instrument. The instrument is validated based on data collected from a crosssectional and crosscountry survey of IT managers.

The potential of information systems (IS) to enable environmental sustainability necessitates an understanding of how organisations can realise this potential. In this study, building on the absorptive capacity theory and following a multi-disciplinary and multi-method approach, we propose that developing IS-environmental absorptive capacity is a significant mechanism to deliver IS-enabled change that addresses environmental issues. We commenced with a literature review and exploratory interviews to define the IS-environmental absorptive capacity construct. We then developed a model that proposes that sustainable IS triggers, knowledge exposure and prior experience influence IS-environmental absorptive capacity, which in turn contributes to the level of environmentally sustainable IS assimilation as well as to the cost saving, operational performance and reputation of organisations. The model was first tested through an international survey of 148 senior IS managers. The findings support our model regarding the antecedents and value of IS-environmental absorptive capacity. A follow-up case study corroborated the survey results and provided additional insights into the nature and causes of IS-environmental absorptive capacity and its value. This study, in addition to presenting empirical evidence, defines and operationalises the IS-environmental absorptive capacity construct in a theoretically and operationally meaningful way.

Businesses are under increasing pressure from customers, competitors, regulators and community groups to implement sustainable business practices. Balancing economic and environmental performance to be green and competitive is therefore a key strategic issue. The information technology (IT) sector is one of the pioneer sectors which started working on the sustainable development model. However, it is only lately that researchers and organisations have begun to consider the role of IT, not only in contributing to a businesses environmental footprint but also in tackling climate change problems. Usually coined as, "Green Information Technology", the role of IT in causing and resolving ecological sustainability, in maintaining low cost IT shops, in building green reputation capital and in supporting corporate green strategies has hardly been researched. This paper identifies five main areas of Green IT capability and describes the main pillars of a G-readiness framework to help organisations evaluate their maturity for Green IT. The utility of the framework is demonstrated through a desk-based research case study of four organisations. The paper argues that just as ereadiness has been, and continues to be, a critical capability in the digital economy, Greadiness is an equally critical capability in the low carbon digital economy. Without a clear understanding of G-readiness, organisations would approach Green IT initiatives on an ad hoc and somewhat reactive basis, which is undesirable.