A city council’s project to save energy used by information and communication technology has been short listed for a European award. The Bristol Council scheme was launched only a month ago following a ground breaking study of businesses in the city.

Connecting Bristol, the Council’s Digital Partnership, launched www.greenaddict.eu, a major web site on the green use of ICT, at the beginning of November. It is now a finalist in the European ICT for Energy Efficiency Award. The website was developed after an innovative study to calculate the carbon footprint of business use of ICT in the city as a first step to reaching a green ICT solutions database.

Connecting Bristol carried out the study using funding from the Carbon Trust. The research found that the business use of ICT costs Bristol approximately 11 million pounds a year in energy bills and produces more than 67,000 tonnes of CO2. The study was the first of its kind to arrive at a baseline for a city against which to measure progress in cutting ICT-related carbon emissions. It is also hoped it can be a template for other cities. Councuillor Barbara Janke, Leader of the City Council said: “ICT isn’t something you would immediately associate with being environmentally friendly, however it has quickly become an important enabler of new smarter, greener ways of living and working that will, over time, bring about major reductions in energy use and carbon emissions.”