IT buyers hold back on going green

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The vast majority of large companies have yet to incorporate "green technologies" into the way they work, according to a report by analyst Forrester Research.

A survey of more than 100 companies found that although 85 per cent claimed to be concerned about environmental issues, only 25 per cent had actually implemented guidelines to inform their purchasing.

Nonetheless, many leading technology vendors are striving to be more energy efficient in order to be ready when the market does want to go green. AMD, Cisco, Dell and Sun Microsystems are amongst the many big names that are treating sustainable development and green issues as a top priority.

Why, then, are buyers not interested? Until these new initiatives become cheaper, they will not be successful, according to Forrester's senior vice president Christopher Mines.

"Most IT decision-makers told us that a green purchase would only happen in the context of cost reduction," he said. "These are hard-headed, ROI-driven business decisions."

Lack of awareness could also be a factor. It seems that although vendors are investing a considerable amount of resources into going green, this is not being communicated effectively to end users, who do not know the full range of options open to them.

However, with such a large proportion of companies saying that they are at least concerned about green issues, technology marketers need not despair. Indeed, Mines added that "slowly, that receptivity will translate into action on the part of enterprise IT organisations," suggesting that changes are emerging.

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