Strategic Framework for Green ICT in Government: Developing a Strategic Framework and Testing it in the Dutch Public Sector

The environmental impact of ICT usage is becoming a key concern for government organizations. While e-government enhances performance, efficiency and service delivery, it also leads to increased energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Since the relations between digitalization and environmental impacts are manifold, a variety of interventions at different levels are required to reduce sustainability impacts. A strategic framework for green ICT in government can form a basis for an organization's comprehensive, integrated and actionable strategy. On the basis of the (scientific and grey) literature on the topic from various disciplines, this paper develops a strategic framework for green ICT in government. We build upon a framework developed by the World Bank and add two new pillars to emphasize the social and political aspects of green ICT in government. The resulting framework – the five-pillar framework – integrates sustainability into the use of ICT in government, laying the foundation for the development of green ICT strategies for government organizations. To explore the value of the framework, we conducted a qualitative study of green ICT practices in five Dutch public organizations. The empirical study results in the identification of a variety of possible interventions and shows that, while there are many green ICT initiatives, none of the organisations has an established strategy for green ICT in government. In sum, our empirical analysis highlights the value of the five-pillar framework for public managers responsible for reducing the environmental impacts of ICT in government. The strategic framework with the conceptualization of the five pillars provides a basis for further (comparative) research of green ICT in government in different countries.