Info Gap Blocks Development of Green IT

Business leaders, looking ahead to what could be a carbon-strained economy, are increasingly employing Green IT strategies, according to a Deloitte/CFO Research Services study (pdf).

But there is a big information gap, Deloitte found. Among the 353 executives surveyed, 40 percent of IT respondents, 43 percent of business unit respondents and 60 percent of finance respondents said their companies do not have complete, accurate and timely information on IT's impact on the environment.

Forty percent of all respondents said they have not established a baseline for IT's environmental performance.

Other highlights from the report:

• More than nine out of 10 companies have made at least incremental - if not aggressive - efforts to reduce their impact on the environment.
• Nearly three in five respondents said their company has at least 5 percent of their IT budget set aside for Green IT projects; more than one-third of companies have allocated 15 percent or more to Green IT.
• Thirty-two percent of respondents have a formal Green IT program in place, while 34 percent are planning to launch a Green IT program within a year.
• Two-thirds of respondents said their company has a formal program in place for measuring, monitoring and improving its environmental performance. The same proportion said a formal review of business impact on the environment has been conducted in the last two years.

Deloitte concluded that though governmental tax credits and other incentives will drive increased investment in enterprise sustainability and Green IT, more stringent regulatory and reporting requirements around energy use and greenhouse gas emissions may cause some of them to disappear.

At the end of the year, InfoWorld asked green tech leaders to share their predictions for 2009.

Last month ComputerWorld published some quick green IT fixes that can deliver near-immediate ROI.