SYDNEY, Australia — While awareness of green IT and energy used by a company's computing departments are widespread, a new survey sponsored by Fujitsu found that every area of green IT could use improvement, and that green IT practices as a whole lack maturity in every corner of the globe.

The survey of CIOs and IT professionals in Australia, India, the United Kingdom and the United States found that among IT departments there was some progress made on data center energy efficiency and smarter management of PC fleets and peripherals, but that expanding the reach of green IT beyond computers and into a company's footprint remains almost unknown.

"Tomorrow's business leaders will be leaders in sustainability; they will understand the importance of an integrated sustainability strategy," said Alison O'Flynn, Global Executive Director of Sustainability at Fujitsu Group, in a statement. "IT has a fundamental role to play in enabling change and must step up to face this significant global challenge."

The areas that show progress -- albeit slow progress -- are data center management, networking, communications, cloud computing and "end user" efforts like computers and printers. But the areas where awareness and action alike are minimal include the gathering of metrics on an IT department's energy use -- the first step in reducing that energy use and boosting efficiency -- and what Fujitsu calls "enablement," which is putting the power of IT to work on measuring and managing a company's entire carbon footprint.

Among the other findings of the survey:

• The U.K. performed best out of the countries surveyed, with an overall Green IT Index of 61.0. The relatively high score is likely due to the U.K.'s stringent carbon reduction and reporting goals, and its government's efforts to lead by example with green IT initiatives.

• The United States landed in second place, Australia in third place, and India came in last because green IT has yet to gain a foothold in that country.

• Responsible practices for procurement and disposal are largely ignored around the world, although in regions where there are regulations governing IT's lifecycle impacts, performance is generally stronger.

• In an industry-by-industry breakdown, ICT is the unsurprising leader, while the wholesale, retail and logistics sectors are the lowest-ranking industries. Scores by industries were relatively consistent across countries in the survey.