Cisco and Ericsson top the latest update to Greenpeace's Cool IT Leaderboard list, while Panasonic, Sony and Sharp rank at the bottom. Findings indicate that there is a significant gap between talk and action by some of these global IT companies, says Greenpeace.
Greenpeace based the rankings on three main criteria -- climate solutions, carbon footprint and political policy and advocacy. The top IT leaders are Cisco (62 points), Ericsson (53), IBM (42), HP (41), Fujitsu (36), Google (33) and Microsoft (31).
Cisco doubled its score from the previous report by demonstrating the benefits of its greenhouse gas emissions-saving solutions such as smart-grid technology and office energy management.
Ericsson debuts at second place, thanks to its real world case studies that measure how its solutions are driving down emissions.
Google was cited for its PowerMeter tool that provides real-time energy consumption information, allowing consumers to reduce energy use. Google remains the top scoring company for strong political advocacy, which includes a clear vision for a clean energy economy.
However, Google has no emission reduction targets, and does not release or disclose its own emissions, which weakens its ability to be an effective advocate, says Greenpeace.
Greenpeace believes that IT companies can play a significant role in helping ensure that global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions peak by 2015, but they need to do more than talk about commitments and deliver the technologies that can provide climate savings.
In a recent study, Greenpeace predicts that greenhouse gases associated with cloud computing functions will triple by 2020. Cloud computing is projected to consume nearly 2 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity a year by 2020.
Click here for last year's Cool IT Leaderboard findings.
