Chandrakant is a pioneer in what's now known as sustainable IT or "green computing". He founded HP Labs' thermal technology research program in the early 1990s, and has continued to push for (and develop) more energy-efficient IT solutions.

Environmental issues have long been important to me so Chandrakant's work is, in my opinion, some of the most exciting research we do at HP Labs.

One of his latest projects aims to reduce data center energy demand by using measurement and control to provision key compute, power, and cooling resources based on the needs of the user.

Reducing energy demand will lower costs -- and that, he says, will open up access to IT to more people in developing nations, allowing them to work and compete more effectively. But addressing the Digital Divide must be accompanied by what Chandrakant calls a "cradle to cradle" approach to IT.

In the Financial Times guest article, Chandrakant says we must take into account the entire IT lifecycle, from the energy required and materials extracted to build IT equipment to how it is manufactured and operated and even to how these same products and materials are reclaimed when they are no longer usable.

He also argues that IT can help address environmental problems by reducing the need for travel, for example, or allowing us to measure and compare the true impact of competing technologies.

It's refreshing to hear someone talk this way. It's one thing to cut energy use in the data center or even to find more sustainable sources of energy. But the only way we're going to truly make progress is to look at the whole picture -- beyond data centers, beyond IT -- and consider how we live our lives.

Chandrakant's work is, I think, a step in the right direction.