Green IT Initiatives Are Moving Beyond Power and Cooling Efficiencies

In 2009, we saw a significant growth in green IT initiatives. Those who responded “no green IT initiatives” dropped from 31% in 2008 to only 18% in 2009. The most interesting result shows that this growth was for green IT initiatives that were not associated with power and cooling – the “power and cooling only” response stated the same as 2008 at 31% and the “more than just power and cooling” rose above the 50% level. This indicates that companies are growing in their commitment to environmental performance. Although power and cooling efficiency contributes a large amount to environmental performance, it is usually driven by cost savings. To varying degrees, cost saving is the main driver or, at the very least, a key gating factor for most initiatives under green IT programs.