Companies in the U.S. and Europe lack sufficient systems to measure their environmental impact, according to a new survey by IFS.
The survey found that, although C-level executives considered environmental metrics to be important in the three regions they tested (82 percent of participants in Scandinavia, 79 percent in Benelux, 83 percent in the U.S.), around three quarters of companies in Benelux and Scandinavia (75 percent and 74 percent respectively) lack the functionality to monitor the environmental impact in their current systems. Meanwhile, in the U.S., almost half (47 percent) lacked appropriate functionality.
In each of the regions questioned, there were different priorities for the environmental measures which were tracked. In Scandinavia, CO2 emissions are the most tracked (20 percent), in Benelux, Solid Waste (57 percent), and in the U.S., Product Lifecycle (50 percent).
Respondents answered differently when asked what the most important reasons are for green IT initiatives. The marketing value of green initiatives was cited as the most pressing reason to implement enterprise software capable of managing environmental impacts and was rated as most important by 35 percent of Scandinavians, outstripping legislation compliance (22 percent) and cost cutting (19 percent). In contrast, the Benelux and US executives surveyed believed that environmental compliance was more a important benefit (36 percent in the U.S., 34 percent in Benelux) than marketing and cost reduction benefits.
Over half of all the U.S. and European organizations questioned wanted embedded environmental tracking to be included in their existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. However, although interest is high, many could not name ERP vendors that included this functionality.
The survey included 704 executives in the U.S., Scandinavia and Benelux countries.
