The British Computer Society (BCS) has introduced two new
categories for this year's
BCS IT Industry Awards to recognise the growing importance of
green technology and IT research.
The Green Organisation of the Year award will, for the first
time, enable businesses to demonstrate how IT is helping to reduce
their environmental impact.
David Clarke, BCS chief executive, said that the new green
technology category was aimed at ensuring the awards reflect the
issues that are relevant to the IT industry now and into the
future.
The new award complements the BP Environment Award for
excellence in IT projects aimed at creating a greener IT industry,
introduced last year as the Green Technology Award.
BT was the first winner of award for its
21st Century Data Centre Project, which was aimed to change the
way BT builds and maintains its datacentres to reduce carbon
emissions by 80% by 2016.
The Excellence in Research and Development award is the second
new category to be introduced to this year's competition.
The award will recognise the value of research by universities
or commercial organisations in the UK and the rest of Europe.
"The awards provide a showcase for the profession as a whole to
gain the recognition it deserves in a world where technology has
become integral to everyday life and business," said Clarke.
The BCS IT Industry Awards are now made up of 24 categories of
awards for individual, organisational and project excellence aimed
at recognising the contribution made by the IT profession to
economic prosperity, business efficiency and the public
services.
The closing date for entries for the 2008 competition is 1
August. Details are available on the BCS
website.