Ignorance among UK IT managers and suppliers remains the key obstacle in the adoption of green IT practices.
In a survey carried out by the National Computing Centre (NCC) with 120 IT decision-makers, 18 per cent said they always evaluate the carbon footprint of any new IT systems they purchase, but nearly half said they still did not consider the environmental impact of IT equipment.
The real motivation for introducing technology such as virtualisation is still economic, with 70 per cent saying they had adopted greener IT equipment to reduce the cost of ownership through lower energy bills, while 48 per cent said they were more interested in taking an environmental stance.
Most firms are still not evaluating their IT carbon footprint before deciding the best way to start reducing it, says the survey. Just 12 per cent of respondents have used a third party for environmental auditing, while 26 per cent would consider doing so.
Confusion linked to the lack of guidelines is hampering the establishment of green technology standards, with 58 per cent of those surveyed by NCC claiming they did not have a specific green IT policy.
The value of being seen to be green was a motivating factor cited by 52 per cent of the managers polled. And 30 per cent experienced pressure from senior management to adopt a company-wide green mandate |
