Quantifying resistance to the diffusion of information technology sustainability practices in United Kingdom service sector

The United Kingdom (UK) Service Sector employs 16.1m people, representing 50% of the country’s workforce [1, 2]. Consuming 32% of UK electricity, with an estimated 10% attributed to information technology (IT) use phase electricity (UPE) consumption, the sector is a high contributor to the nation’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [3, 4]. Although the reduction of IT energy consumption through efficiency measures is substantiated to abate concomitant GHG emissions [5,6,7], widespread diffusion of the practice experiences resistance that is limiting success. This research proposes that identifying, categorising and quantifying the resistance at a sector and job role level will enable organisations to anticipate resistance pain points and plan accordingly to accelerate success. Doing so will contribute to the UK’s GHG abatement strategies and support the Government’s aspirations to becoming carbon neutral in 2050 [8, 9]. As such, this research conducts a survey of over five hundred UK service sector managers and, through a method of triangulation, presents the data in an easily consumable framework that offers percentages of resistance attributed to awareness, actions and barriers experienced when proffering sustainable IT practices.