Survey Shows Most Organizations Will Maintain Priority of Green IT Projects Despite Recession

The recession is resulting in cutbacks across all projects, including green IT programmes, but a survey by Gartner, Inc. indicates that most organizations will maintain the priority of green IT projects.

In December of 2008, Gartner surveyed 620 respondents who had responsibility for, or were very knowledgeable about, their organization’s green IT programs. Respondents were asked a series of questions about the development of their organization and IT environment programs and also the impact of the recession on green IT initiatives.

A significant number of organizations, particularly in the US and Brazil, anticipated reducing the priority of green IT projects in 2009. However, in most cases, particularly in Europe and Asia/Pacific, the recession will not change or will increase the priority of green IT projects. There is still some education required, particularly in Asia/Pacific, related to the financial benefits of many green IT projects.

Gartner also asked organizations that had a specific capital expenditure budget for green IT (22 per cent of respondents), what proportion of total IT capital expenditure this represented. Overall, more than one-third of respondents (46 per cent in Europe, 38 per cent in Asia/Pacific and 36 per cent in the US) anticipated spending more than 15 per cent of their IT capital budgets on green IT projects.

Only 60 organizations (10 per cent of respondents) had no green IT projects at the time of the survey. With the exception of Asia/Pacific, most organizations with no green IT projects at present anticipated addressing the issue. It found that 40 per cent of US and 58 per cent of European respondents were very likely to launch projects in the future, with only 15 per cent of respondents for Asia/Pacific. Additionally, relatively few respondents did not have green IT projects as a result of the recession.

For end-user organizations, lean and green should not be conflated, but CIOs need to break down budget silos and consider the wider cost-benefits to the organization if they are to help the business exploit the financial benefits derived from green IT projects.

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