Green IT Continues to Make Progress in Companies: Forrester
Around the globe enterprise IT departments are getting increasingly greener for unexpected reasons and in surprising ways, according to the latest findings from a Forrester Research survey.
Green IT continues to make inroads in large enterprises, for different reasons around the globe, and in unexpected ways, according to a new study from Forrester Research.
The new report, "More Green Progress in Enterprise IT," is the third survey of IT professionals in the past year, and shows that companies are increasingly taking the environmental impact of their technology needs into consideration as part of regular operations.
The survey asked 738 companies, almost three-quarters of which employ more than 1,000 people, and found that over 40 percent of respondents said that environmental concerns were "very important" to their companies. Furthermore, 45 percent of those companies are either implementing or creating an overarching green-IT strategy to guide future purchasing and end-of-life considerations.
Among the unexpected findings of the survey, according to lead author Christopher Mines, was that half of the companies incorporate environmental criteria into purchasing decisions, and almost 80 percent of companies are recycling hardware at the end of life, whether through the OEMs or third-party manufacturers.
Also interesting among the findings were the regional breakdowns for why companies are making greener IT choices. Globally, the top three reasons for doing so include reducing energy-related expenses, doing "the right thing for the environment," and bringing the IT department in line with a larger corporate initiative.
In Europe, the biggest reason was to improve the brand, followed by aligning with a corporate initiative; in the U.S., the biggest driver is to reduce costs, while improving the brand was the lowest-rated of the three.
The survey also looks at how vendors' green messaging is having an impact on how customers respond, and suggests ways to maximize the ways they promote their greenest products.
The full report, "More Green Progress in Enterprise IT," is available for purchase from Forrester Research.
The new report, "More Green Progress in Enterprise IT," is the third survey of IT professionals in the past year, and shows that companies are increasingly taking the environmental impact of their technology needs into consideration as part of regular operations.
The survey asked 738 companies, almost three-quarters of which employ more than 1,000 people, and found that over 40 percent of respondents said that environmental concerns were "very important" to their companies. Furthermore, 45 percent of those companies are either implementing or creating an overarching green-IT strategy to guide future purchasing and end-of-life considerations.
Among the unexpected findings of the survey, according to lead author Christopher Mines, was that half of the companies incorporate environmental criteria into purchasing decisions, and almost 80 percent of companies are recycling hardware at the end of life, whether through the OEMs or third-party manufacturers.
Also interesting among the findings were the regional breakdowns for why companies are making greener IT choices. Globally, the top three reasons for doing so include reducing energy-related expenses, doing "the right thing for the environment," and bringing the IT department in line with a larger corporate initiative.
In Europe, the biggest reason was to improve the brand, followed by aligning with a corporate initiative; in the U.S., the biggest driver is to reduce costs, while improving the brand was the lowest-rated of the three.
The survey also looks at how vendors' green messaging is having an impact on how customers respond, and suggests ways to maximize the ways they promote their greenest products.
The full report, "More Green Progress in Enterprise IT," is available for purchase from Forrester Research.
