On the 29th of July 2018, all natural resources that the planet are able to generate that year was used up. This is because of the increasing consumption every year by mankind, which continually move this date forward. If the whole world consumed at the same rate as Sweden does per inhabitant, this date would instead be 4th of April, indicating that our country has major problems that must be solved. In modern times, IT is used everywhere. It can be used in many other sectors than just the IT sector, which means it has a big area of influence and potential to streamline and solve many problems. But the big use of IT also creates problems. Computers affect the environment negatively throughout their whole life cycle from production and use to elimination. According to previous research, the definition of the concept green IT varies among companies which creates uncertainty about how it should be used. Also, it has been noted that several companies have not yet managed to implement their green agendas.
This study aims to find out what concepts Swedish IT companies use to make their business environmentally friendly and sustainable. The purpose of this study is also to find out how these concepts are used, why they are used and what problems and obstacles there is. The question that the study is based on is to understand how Swedish IT companies in reality work with their sustainability initiatives and what advice and guidelines can be drawn from their working methods. To fulfill this, a qualitative survey has been conducted at four IT companies. The interview template was based on four sub-questions into which the research question was divided. Among the people we got in touch with, one of them were an environmental manager and a sustainability coordinator. Finally, an empirical analysis was based on existing theory to answer the research question. The advice and guidelines were placed under the following headings: Internal organization, Techniques and models and Collaboration.