Recognised expert in finance transformation, former CFO and now consultant and author of “The CFO of the Future, Malcolm Simister is delivering a keynote address at the Sustainable Futures Forum, which is being held in Melbourne tomorrow (Thursday). 

The forum will explore what the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) industry can do to minimise Australia’s environmental footprint. Green IT is a hot topic right now so this one day forum will bring together industry and government leaders to discuss the state of play and future plans.

Speaking to Business Climate International, Simister says, “As far as the ICT companies are concerned, I think, just like all organisations in Australia, they’re going to have to work out what all this environment stuff means for them.”

Initiatives where ICT companies are taking back their products from consumers at the end of their life are a start, says Simister, who points to Japan and Germany who have already legislated on it.

“In Victoria there’s a scheme called ‘ByteBack’ working with Sustainability Victoria whereby you no longer chuck your old PC on the rubbish heap, you take it to these places and the computer companies are working with Sustainability Victoria on that.”

“I think there are all sorts of impacts on a strategic level that may reduce consumer demand but it will increase demand for other products,” he says.

Emissions trading is one such opportunity, says Simister. However there has to be a large amount of input for it to be done properly.

“To enable emissions trading to happen, somebody has got to measure or calculate the emissions, the information has got to be stored somewhere. It’s got to have controls around it to make sure it’s accurate, and it’s then got to be audited and reported before you actually trade any of it.

As regional chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Simister says, “This is going to be smack bang in accountants’ space, we already record, report and audit financial information. So it’s very similar in some ways, but to do all those things you’re going to need specialist application. I don’t think you’re going to be able to use existing financial applications because there’s so much that’s specific to emissions trading about it.”

For more information on the Forum, click here  

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