ABSTRACT
Making a company’s physical operations more eco-efficient offers the benefit of both optimising its internal processes and positioning it in new technology markets. Not only is operational greening costly, but it also requires a radical change in mindsets, with professionals being asked to focus less on output maximisation and more on input minimisation. The basic aim of any eco-efficient operation is to optimise material and energy inputs while minimising environmentally damaging outputs. There are several ways that information technology can be used to green physical operations. The holistic paradigm underlying all ecological thinking is best encapsulated in a construct called “industrial ecology”, where an overview is taken of all of the physical operations required to make a product so as to ascertain different modalities for minimising both net resource utilisation and pollution. Companies vary widely in terms of the particular value chain operation that they are most likely to try and make eco-efficient.
