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British organisations are committed to reducing the carbon footprint left by their IT operations but most are clueless as to how they should go about it. Renewable energy, targets for tackling CO2 emissions and aligning IT with utility purchases are among the greener business steps being ignored by the majority. But asked whether tackling the carbon footprint left by their IT systems should be part of a green business strategy for UK organisations, 95% of IT managers agreed. Whether or not this vision is translating into action is, however, disputable, says research published yesterday by the newly unveiled Green Technology Initiative. Part of the problem appears to be education: eight out of ten professionals at manager level in corporate IT said power costs had no link to hardware spend or IT budgets. This verdict is despite the running costs of a small server being higher than its initial purchase price, the GTI said yesterday. And only five per cent of managers say they can gauge the efficiency of their IT systems, meaning 95% operate without any mechanism in place to test IT efficiency. “What we are doing in IT today is not sustainable,” Dan Sutherland, founder of the GTI, said in a statement, which echoes warnings from experts at Gartner. The analyst firm has predicted energy costs could rise from 10% to 50% of an overall IT budget for large organisations within a few years. Sutherland, who is also chairman of the GTI, added: “Systems efficiency is the cheapest and easiest way of reducing the carbon footprint of the work you do and delivered properly it has the benefit of bringing down costs across the board.” But the group’s research shows almost half of outfits don’t have a single person to buy utilities and IT, less than a quarter use renewables, and over a third are only ‘thinking about’ green IT. The GTI, which began last month, said: “Business is clearly not getting the help and support it needs to take that responsibility [for energy consumption via IT]. “Both industry and the government need to work together to help businesses make the changes they clearly want to make.” The call for help comes in the same week that The Carbon Trust, the state agency tasked with reducing businesses’ carbon footprints, was reportedly condemned for failing smaller ventures. David Frost, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, slammed a lack of “effective help” from the Trust, despite its budget of £100m to help firms save energy via new technologies, among other ways. He told The Observer that the Trust is focused on big business, evidenced, he said, by the agency’s free energy audit being only available to firms with an annual fuel bill exceeding £50,000. The Trust, which has just awarded grants of up to £140,000 for 16 organisations, including the TUC and the British Property Federation, to help cut their CO2 emissions, insisted it provides small firms with a lot of advice and practical help. Its figures show organisations are responsible for about 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions, with those in Greater London emitting the most, followed at a distance by Greater Manchester and then Birmingham. Jun 26, 2007 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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