Pollution and the need to conserve energy resources call on ICT to play a leading role. Working
in conjunction with other disciplines such as green computing, research is moving towards a
complementary approach to the energy problem. From the quality of civil and industrial buildings,
to digital intelligence that controls how they function; from optimising the rapport between local
weather conditions and the environmental quality of living space, to using the new technologies
to optimise agricultural production, to academic research on the environment, these are no longer
separate compartments, but a set of elements, that, if well integrated, can drastically reduce energy
consumption. It is a question of saving energy and reducing consumption without reducing quality
of life or production efficiency: making rational use of the renewable resources available – sun,
wind, water and geothermal energy – and optimising usage to the point of actually capitalising on the
energy produced by human and industrial activities and reintroducing it into the production cycle.

Green IT is already being applied in various business and manufacturing contexts.
In the residential context, for example, once a building has been completed according to green
building standards, domotics comes to the fore. In the “intelligent” home, compact embedded
systems – possibly powered by renewable sources of energy such as photovoltaic panels, or using
energy recovered from objects or people in motion – decide when and how to perform operations.
Automated functions that require energy can be activated according to the effective availability of
energy, ensuring that personal needs are fully met, in zero energy conditions.