By Nick Heath, 8 July 2008 12:39
NEWS
UK businesses are the worst in Europe for embracing green IT say tech directors.
The majority of IT leaders in the UK, 60 per cent, gave the thumbs down to their firm's environmental credentials, according to a survey of 8,000 executives by data centre networking company Brocade.
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Despite this only 37 per cent of the UK IT directors and board-level managers questioned said they were personally concerned about their company's energy usage and carbon footprint, and just 16 per cent said they sought out green technology.
But energy costs were high on UK companies' agenda, with almost half of UK respondents believing a quarter of their company's operating expenses are spent on energy.
Attitudes across the whole of Europe were generally more positive, with only 40 per cent feeling downbeat about their company's green credentials but still less than a fifth saying they scouted out green technologies.
Germany is rated as having the greenest IT, with only 30 per cent of German IT execs believing their company could do more on environmental issues.
Ulrich Plechschmidt, Brocade VP for Europe, said the findings were disappointing but he believed cost savings would drive green technology forward.
He said: "There is a strong financial incentive, if you are using products which consume a third of the energy as other offerings you could save a six-figure sum over the three- to five-year investment time frame of a data centre network.
"IT directors said they felt there were no green products out there to buy. The technology industry needs to offer more education as to what is available."
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. Roger Huffadine
You need to understand the cultural differences if you are compiling a report that includes more than one nationality - like this one.
This sort of cultural response can lead to all sorts of problems if you are unaware.
I suspect that it is not in the interests of a German IT exec to give a response that would indicate that they are critical of their employer's green credentials - whereas in the UK we just tend to tell the bald truth.
2. Chris James
Figures from our own independent research seem to backup the perception that Britons are far less environmentally conscientious than our French and German neighbors. However, the conversations we are having with our UK customers suggest that they are incredibly sceptical about the green marketing claims linked to a growing number of products and maybe it’s the refusal to accept these claims that is behind our, and Brocade’s, results.
Rather than simply painting IT products green, vendors need to educate their customers in the most efficient ways of integrating more energy efficient equipment with what they already have instead of encouraging them to buy new 'green' products that inevitably have a high manufacturing carbon foot print. Efficiency and reducing power consumption are the key words.
3. Karen Conneely
Increasing pressure for green credentials will create a significant cost for UK business unless organisations get their asset registers in order.
Assessment of environmental practices and reporting is certainly on the increase for business and generic statements about green strategies – from procurement to recycling, carbon footprint to flexible working – will not suffice in the long term: organisations will have to prove their commitment through information transparency and auditable policies.
At the heart of such transparency will be consistent, detailed information about the life cycle of every asset - from country of origin through maintenance schedules to final disposal.
Existing green policies such as the WEEE directive and measuring carbon footprints assume a level of asset management far beyond that achieved by the majority of UK business. How many UK businesses can accurately identify the location of their WEEE equipment within the organisation and confirm when it was purchased and from whom? By linking the asset register to a document management system organisations can create the required audit trail, gaining valuable insight into their own assets and adapting to the ‘green economy’.