Although the economy is by and large in the pits, with unemployment rates through the roof and overall confidence in the economy almost non-existent, there's one area that companies are starting to sink big money: Green IT.

Forrester's Chris Mines writes this week in our featured story, "How A Booming IT Market Means More Spending on Sustainability," about how the market for green IT is expected to grow nearly 8 percent this year, and grow a further 8 percent next year as companies start to take sustainability to heart.

What that means for the IT market is not just more PCs and servers, but rather a focus on "IT for green." As Chris writes: "As sustainability takes hold as an executive-level imperative, IT is asked to be the enabler of initiatives in business functions ranging from facilities to logistics to human resources, and CIOs are stepping up to these challenges." Read the rest here.

Also this week, we look at Microsoft's green data center plans, a new sustainability standard for mobile phones, and why Facebook is already doubling the size of its not-yet-completed green data center in Oregon.

This white paper from Microsoft lays out some unconventional steps companies can take to make their data centers more efficient and greener.

 Join GreenBiz.com’s Marc Gunther in an upcoming webcast, “Taking an Integrated Approach to Sustainability,” to learn how you can go beyond the basics and build a strategy that drives returns and meets today’s growing demands for transparency and accountability.