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Due to the fragile balance of the future of our ecosystem and society, sustainability issues are paramount and corporations, governments and cross-national bodies are turning their attention to the question of “how we can make the world a better place” (Malhotra et al., 2013). Sustainability is a complex term which encompasses issues related to the environment, economy and society. Simply, sustainability refers to conservation deployment and the responsible use of resources. According to the United Nations Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Report), sustainable development is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Commission, 1987). Recently, the focus of environmental concerns has changed from the local scale to the global scale, and has become the top concern of organizations, governments, non-governmental organizations and consumers (Dedrick, 2010; Kuo and Dick, 2010). As policies regarding environmental sustainability have been developed, and rules and legislation have been established, it was natural that organizations would focus more on their sustainable practices (Bansal, 2005; Zeleny, 2010).
Environmental sustainability has gained significant interest among researchers from different disciplines such as management (as evidenced in special issues of the Academy of Management Review in 1995 and Academy of Management Journal in 2000), and in other disciplines through some specialized journals such as Journal of Environmental Management, Journal of Industrial Ecology and Journal of Social Issues. The role which can be played by information technology (IT)1 and information systems (IS)2 in such endeavors has been neglected by researchers with few exceptions (see Pavlou and Fygenson, 2006 for a summary). The impact of IT and IS on the environment was considered in the special issue of Management Information Systems Quarterly (MISQ) in 2010/2011 on IS and environmental sustainability. Following this special issue, researchers focused on identifying the relationship between IT/IS and the environment, with this relationship found to be a complex one because of the two order effects of IT on the environment (Elliot, 2011; Malhotra et al., 2013). The first order refers to the negative impact of IT production, use and disposal on the environment. This perspective considers IT as part of the problem (Dedrick, 2010; Molla and Abareshi, 2012). Making IT product, use and disposal more environmentally friendly and greener is referred as Green IT (Dedrick, 2010; Molla, 2013; Molla and Abareshi, 2012; Ryoo and Koo, 2013). The second order effect refers to the positive impact of IT on the environment which considers IT as part of the solution. Utilizing IT to make business processes and activities greener is known as IT for Green or Green IS (Dedrick, 2010; Molla, 2013; Sarkis et al., 2013; Watson et al., 2010).