Internal Auditors' Experiences and Opinions Regarding Green IT: Assessing the Gap in Normative and Positive Perspectives

Abstract

ABSTRACTOrganizations' sustainability and environmental compliance activities are escalating. Information technology (IT) is an essential environmental compliance component under the rubric of green IT, which can include the designing, manufacturing, implementing, and disposing of IT components and the supporting electrical and cooling infrastructure. Green IT has numerous compliance, governance, and control issues, and management needs assurance that green IT metrics reported to management, regulators, and other stakeholders are accurate, complete, and timely. Boards, executives, the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), and the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) view internal auditors as control experts. This paper summarizes a survey of internal auditors as to what internal auditors should be doing in this domain and what they are actually doing. The results indicate that even though internal auditors believe that they should be more involved in green IT activities, their current involvement is limited to the traditional role as assurance provider, not as facilitators or consultants. The results also suggest that internal auditors' current involvement in green IT activities varies depending on the types of environmental sustainability strategies practiced by their organizations, whereas their perceived roles in green IT activities did not.Data Availability: Data used in this study are available from the authors on request.