Are Belgian IT teams romantics or realists with regard to Green IT?

Published : 27/01/2010

Following the Copenhagen summit and the ongoing issues surrounding this topic that have been ongoing for years, is it all just hot air or are companies actually starting to do something about it?

The IT Job Board conducted a survey to determine whether or not Green IT is being taken seriously and if it is already forming part of a company’s IT strategy and the response was a mixed message from Belgian IT professionals.

Status Quo - of Green IT

The most shocking revelation was that 62.2 percent of respondents are not considering a green IT strategy at all. This means that more than half of companies are not doing anything to reduce their carbon footprint within the IT space.

In contrast, only a meagre 18 percent already have a green IT strategy in place, which highlights the fact that Belgian companies do not seem to view this issue as pressing.

Reasons & obstacles for green IT

The main obstacle facing companies with regard to green IT inevitably seemed to be budget. It was surprising, however, that no one cited lack of time as an obstacle, but possibly the most surprising result of them all was that 22.6% of our survey base felt that motivating employees was the biggest hurdle in the way of implementing a Green IT strategy. Those in favour of introducing such a scheme or considering doing so, cited these reasons:

Reducing costs 35.5%
Protecting the environment 3.2%
Promotion of CSR / brand image 6.5%
Compliance with national & international regulations 12.9%
All of the above 34.5%

Areas of Green IT

The majority of Belgian IT professionals that took part in our survey also claimed they recycle everything from paper to Blackberry’s. But over 45% of people informed us that there was no financial incentive for their company to do this and a further 29% of survey participants said they had no idea if there was a financial incentive.

This raises the question of whether or not the government is doing enough to highlight the role and responsibility of companies as an entity to make an impact on protecting the environment. If penalties and incentives were in place perhaps more would be done to get Green IT schemes moving.

An encouraging sign was that 45.2% of our survey base believe that our planet depends on companies reducing their carbon footprint, a romantic ideal but one we must embrace if we are to make a real impact on climate change.

The other 54.8% were more realistic taking into account the economic climate, believing that survival in the recession had to take precedence - a logical rationale given recent economic events, but a short-term view on a hugely important issue.

Future of Green IT

It seems that as individuals around the office we are doing our bit for the environment and companies have obviously introduced facilities that enable us to do this. Businesses are even recycling our old hardware:

The above statistics are encouraging and show recognition and willingness on the part of IT professionals.

There are rumours that there will be more investment in this area in the near future but whether or not this becomes reality remains to be seen. This is the way we are heading and need to do so quickly if we are to meet the 2020 targets and make a positive difference towards reducing our CO2 emissions. The task now is to convince the other 62.2% to first consider, and then properly implement a green IT strategy. Visit IT Job Board.be to search for all the latest IT Jobs including virtualisation jobs and cloud computing jobs.

Bron: www.itjobboard.be