Green IT: How much Conscience driven?

PUNE: As organizations continue to adopt programs and practices to drive environmental responsibility throughout the enterprise, IT is increasingly important to the broader enterprise ‘green’ efforts.  In a survey, 70 percent of IT departments report they are now responsible or cross-charged for electricity, providing a strong motivator for IT is to reduce energy costs. 

This expands the role of the CIO from beyond the confines of IT to now being included on non-technology areas, such as location and size of office space addition, power consumption and utilization, HVAC selection and implementation.

All this and more points to a shift from implementing 'green' technologies primarily for cost reduction purposes, to a more balanced awareness of also improving the organization’s environmental standing, as per Symantec Corp. findings of its 2009 Green IT Report, a follow up to the Green data centre report released in late 2007. 

According to survey data, senior-level IT executives in India report significant interest in green IT strategies and solutions, attributed to both cost reduction and environmental responsibility. 

Furthermore, 90 percent think IT should play a very or extremely significant role in ‘green’ efforts and 52 percent have a corporate green advocate, with more than one-fifth focusing exclusively on IT initiatives.

Another area highlighted is that IT professionals are regularly deploying several key initiatives for green IT purposes.  Replacing old equipment was the most popular strategy, with 88 percent reporting new energy efficient equipment as part of their strategy, followed by monitoring power consumption (83 per cent), server virtualization (73 per cent), and server consolidation (66 per cent).  Additionally, more than half (54 per cent) of respondents see software-as-a-service offerings as ‘green’ solutions.

 If you are an IT decision maker, do you agree or disagree with the trends claimed by this report?