Australian IT departments are not taking Green IT seriously. Most CIOs say they want to be green, but they are doing very little about it. And the main reason is that do not have to pay for the power their computers use – it is hidden away in the corporate electricity bill.
Less than one percent of Australian IT departments include the power consumption of IT in their IT budgets. And guess what – those few that do are on average much more energy-efficient than those that don’t.
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| The cost of Green IT is hidden in the IT budget |
Connection Research has devised the IT Sustainability Index (ITSx – formerly known as the Green IT Index), which rates organisations’ effectiveness in five different areas of IT Sustainability –Lifecycle, End User, Enterprise, Enablement and Metrics. The average ITSx in Australia this year is 52.8, down a little from 53.9 in 2010. But the average rating for those who include the cost of IT energy consumption in the IT budget is a whopping 82.3 – nearly 30 points higher.
For those who have no idea how much power IT is consuming, the figure is just 46.1. And for those who know who much power IT is consuming, but do not include it in the IT budget, the figure is 60.3.
The conclusion is obvious. The higher the visibility of IT’s power consumption, the more effective an organisation’s IT Sustainability strategy will be. And that’s across the board, not just in energy efficiency. It shows up in such areas as green procurement and using IT as a low carbon enabling tool.
