IDC Blogs - Green IT makes business sense

Thanks for the feedback, and apologies for the delay in response. I agree with you that there is significant potential for the Green IT revolution to really take off. There are a number of inhibitors currently holding organizations and consumers back - lack of awareness, lack of education, inertia, fear of change to name a few. However, climate change and global warming are issues that are not going away. Technology has a massive role to play in mitigating the effects of these issues. In fact, we are seeing much higher levels of awareness from executives in terms of the role of IT in reducing the organizational environmental impact. In our 2008 Green Poll, 74% of respondents indicated that they saw Green IT has having being rather or very important in terms of reducing the organizational environmental impact – significantly up from 45% in 2007. The question is whether this will translate into action in 2009, particularly in the 'new' economy. Despite the increased cost pressures expected in the year ahead, I believe that the adoption of Green technologies in the short term will shift away from just a focus on the tactical reduction of energy consumption in the data center and the distributed environment to a broader and more strategic understanding of how IT can contribute to environmental sustainability by looking at broader business practices, carbon management, corporate social responsibility and the use of renewable energy - all of which IDC believes will positively impact the bottom line in the longer term anyway.