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Top1. Introduction
In recent years, the world has been facing many environmental challenges, such as global warming, increased carbon emissions and climate change (Bengtsson and Agerfalk, 2016). It is believed that Information Technology (IT) has an impact on many facets of the environment, such as global warming, climate change, rising ocean levels and temperature increase (Suryawanshi & Narkhede, 2012). These challenges have raised people's anxiety towards environmental protection and created the pressure to adopt green computing practice (Chou and Chou, 2012).
Green computing is one of the evolving technologies that aims to reduce carbon emissions as well as the energy consumption of IT systems. Green computing or Green Information and Communication Technology (Green ICT) refers to the practice of using, designing and manufacturing computing resources in a way that reduces their effect on the environment (Bengtsson and Agerfalk, 2016; Saha, 2014). The goal of Green ICT is to achieve resource-efficiency and reduce energy utilisation, carbon dioxide emissions and energy cost (Loeser et al., 2017). Currently, Green ICT and sustainability are emerging as critical concerns for higher education institutions and universities around all over the world to re-establish their long-term goals, redesign their course of studies and enhance their environmental impact by using products that have a negligible carbon footprint (Gartner, 2015, Suryawanshi & Narkhede, 2015). Recently most of the higher educational institutes use ICT solutions in their daily activities, such as teaching, training, research and administration processes (Suryawanshi & Narkhede, 2012). However, the use of ICT in these institutions has led to great consumption of energy and production of hazardous waste. Therefore, higher education institutions are found interested in implementing Green ICT to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, hazardous electronic waste and energy costs (Suryawanshi & Narkhede, 2015).
Several attempts have been made to examine employees' level of awareness related to “Green ICT” have originated mostly in progressed nations. Conversely, there is rarely any study that have investigated this subject in emerging economies in the Middle East. The primary objective of research is to bridge the gap and provide a new perspective on Green ICT practices at tertiary level academic organisations in Saudi Arabia. In the first place, it is essential to understand the influence of higher education in the pursuing of Green ICT and how it can be an integral element of its role in environmental sustainability and implementing the concept of “greening” universities. Undoubtedly, it is important to develop knowledge about the relationship between individuals and Green ICT implementation in which it is believed that end user's Green ICT behavioural intention will lead to the widespread adoption of Green ICT at the macro level. Consequently, many of the current research has analysed macro perspective of sustainability by studying the role of organisations as a critical factor in maintaining a sustainable business environment (Luqmani et al., 2017; WIlson2003). It is noteworthy that less research has been conducted in the area of end users' Green ICT behaviours, making this an under-researched area. Moreover, end users' participation and understanding of ways to encourage them to change their current behaviour towards Green ICT remain unclear (Wati & Koo, 2012; Elliot, 2011).