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By Tim Ferguson, 22 October 2009 12:00

NEWS

It's never been easy being green, especially when it comes to electricity-hungry IT infrastructure.

And in the midst of a recession, with cost cutting a priority, it's easy to let slide worthy targets such as becoming carbon neutral - especially if the choice is between a project to shrink the carbon footprint of IT and one that could ensure the company makes a profit in these difficult times.

So is green IT still a priority for organisations and, if it is, how have they managed to incorporate it into the initiatives they've had to pursue to cope with the recession?

The recession has undoubtedly brought a change in priorities - green IT has dropped down the corporate agenda with fewer companies implementing or creating a green IT action plan.

Green IT projects that require a significant capital expenditure are the ones that have been hardest hit by the recession. Building greener datacentres may be worthwhile in terms of sustainability but it requires capital that organisations don't have at the moment. Anything that requires capex is under the microscope from finance directors and chief execs.

Mark Blowers, principal analyst at research house Ovum, explained: "If you have to make a large investment, I don't think you could swing it just on sustainability benefits in the current climate, whereas perhaps 18 months ago you could possibly have done that as there was less focus on capital."

David Metcalfe, director of green tech analyst house Verdantix, said many big spending plans around carbon management and reduction have been put on hold. Many businesses have employed a "go slow" approach to green investment, looking at lower cost initiatives around sustainability governance and plans to make their business greener.

But this doesn't tell the full story: as while some elements of green IT have been shelved, there appears to be plenty more still being pursued, especially where businesses can combine them with more immediate economic concerns.

For companies who have made sustainability and green issues a major part of their culture - and brand - making it a lesser priority would be counterproductive.

Chris Mines, analyst with Forrester Research explained: "There are companies that have decided that sustainability is a critical corporate initiative or priority for them. For those companies, I don't think the recession has really knocked them off the track at all."

But where companies have not made such a commitment prior to the downturn however, the tougher economic conditions may have put more of a brake on the progress of green initiatives. "The recession has perhaps slowed companies from crossing that boundary," he said.

The emphasis now is really on the optimisation of existing infrastructure - organisations using what they have more effectively, Mines said. This could involve introducing PC power management software - a relatively small technology implementation that could result in substantial savings on energy bills as well as a significant reduction in energy used and related emissions.

Likewise, virtualisation and storage optimisation can lead to more efficient use of hardware.

The work currently being done tends to be lower cost initiatives that are likely to lead to greater efficiencies and cost savings in the near term, as Ovum's Blowers pointed out: "A lot of the things which you're doing for cost savings definitely do have a sustainable-type benefit as well."

It's also clear that green IT isn't necessarily about technology investment and could equally be about changing procedures and policies. For example, making sure people switch off their hardware or making sure employees are able to use technology as a way of cutting down travel.

The government's deputy green IT champion, Catalina McGregor, told silicon.com: "Both industry and government are on a clear path to reduce, reuse and see where green ICT can help save money - they go hand in hand."

She added she has seen organisations use money saved through the scaling back of IT projects being ploughed back into green projects such as improving conference call and webinar facilities, which reduce travel, leading to savings in expenditure and carbon produced.

Verdantix's Metcalfe agreed telepresence technology has remained a popular investment during the economic downturn: "An interesting question is whether spending on business air travel will be particularly slow to recover as people have learnt how to use video presence more effectively during a long recession."

So while capital-dependent projects are less likely to feature in the current climate, green IT continues to be a consideration for businesses - and it's likely interest in it will rebound as the economic outlook begins to improve again.

Ovum's Blowers said: "Whilst [green IT is] possibly not a major driver now, it's still something that most organisations are aware of and have to report in the shareholders report about what they're doing about sustainability issues."

Forrester's Mines is optimistic: "The fact that green IT continues to grow is good news and a sign of continued recognition on the part of enterprise IT organisations that in fact they can save money by investing. The challenge is that the payback threshold has moved in pretty dramatically."