Firms drag heels on IT CO2

There’s a lot of these green surveys flying around at the moment – partly because I suspect they’ve no news but people want put a point across and get their name out.

My bet is that this situation will be very different in six months.

Here’s the cut down version of the press release from the Green Technology Initiative.

Nearly 70% of UK businesses have no target to reduce their carbon footprint research by the Green Technology Initiative reveals today, yet over 90% of respondents to the Green IT Awareness Survey think that tackling the carbon footprint of IT systems is core to an overall green strategy.

Seventy nine percent do not link power costs to hardware spend or IT budgets.

“What we are doing in IT today is not sustainable,” says Dan Sutherland, founder and acting chair of the Green Technology Initiative. “Systems efficiency is the cheapest and easiest way of reducing the carbon footprint of the work you do and delivered properly it has the benefit of bringing down costs across the board.”

“Whilst undoubtedly UK enterprises are willing to take action, many lack the incentive, knowledge and resources to make immediate changes.”

The majority of respondents are looking to vendors, hardware manufacturers and government to get them and the country on target to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% before 2010. A target we are not on track to meet.