The U.S. government will dispose of some 750,000 computers and monitors this year and spend $79 billion on IT. That budget will include the purchase of roughly one million computers and monitors.

This vast IT footprint will become more environmentally friendly under two executive orders issued in 2007 and 2009. The orders direct government agencies to adopt a range of sustainability measures, including several green IT requirements, such as reducing paper use and buying more efficient equipment.

Government agencies are beginning to make good on these orders, but most haven't created baselines or targets to measure progress, according to a recent report (PDF) from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). This makes it impossible to tell whether the efforts are truly advancing President Obama's sustainability agenda.

"You can't have any hope of proving what you've accomplished if you don't know where you started," said Richard Hodges, a green IT consultant from Sonoma, Calif.

The federal government isn't alone when it comes to setting baselines and goals around IT, Hodges said. Printing is a perfect example.

"There are very few organizations that know how many printers they have with any degree of accuracy," Hodges said, pointing to an audit he performed for a county government in Maryland which revealed it had the equivalent of 1.2 devices for every one employee.

The GAO recommended that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) update its green IT sustainability guidance to direct agencies to develop baselines for their goals and, if possible, targets that measure quantifiable benefits, such as energy or cost savings. The GAO also recommends including in the guidance leading green IT practices identified in the report.

That includes consolidating and standardizing IT equipment and services, which could save the government billions of dollars, according to a 2010 report from the IT Council. That report estimated the government could eliminate up to 30 percent of IT budget by reducing overhead, consolidating data centers and phasing out redundant networks. A good example of this in the private sector would be IBM, which cut its IT expenses in half over the last five years through consolidation and standardization.

Other recommendations from GAO report include:

• Get senior management on board: Getting buy-in from top brass in any organization is crucial, and the federal government is no exception. Research has shown that executive sponsorship is key to removing obstacles in green IT implementation.

• Align green IT with budget: Obama's 2009 executive order calls for electronics stewardship to be integrated into each agency's strategic planning and budgeting process.

• Buy the most stringent EPEAT-certified IT equipment as budget allows: It has been previously reported that replacing 500,000 laptop computers and monitors with EPEAT-rated models would achieve energy savings equivalent to an many as 183,570 households.  

• Adopt green print management practices: Research suggests the federal government spends about $440.4 million per year in unnecessary printing. The opportunities to reduce printing are vast, as evidenced by HP, which helped one of its customers reduce its printer stock by 47 percent and slash per-page print costs by up to 90 percent.