CDW: Cost is most common barrier to green IT

A weighty majority of IT executives believe it's important to implement green IT initiatives in their companies, and in many firms the chief executive is the biggest proponent, says a new survey released by CDW corporation.

Although 80 percent of execs saw the importance, and 49 percent said green IT implementation could boost their reputations, challenges remain.

The barrier for the most execs is the cost of implementing those initiatives — 51 percent of those surveyed said cost was their largest concern, 25 percent said complexity of implementation and maintenance, and 21 percent said disruptions to current systems.

The survey of 1,041 executives showed that 48 percent of businesses and 35 percent of government organizations say they have already implemented some sort of green IT initiative, and that a much higher proportion of large businesses than small ones have done so. Furthermore, only 11 percent of large organizations (with more than a thousand employees) said they have "no plans" for green IT in the next two years, while 43 percent of small firms (less than a hundred employees) said so.

CDW defined green IT as "the practice of using natural resources efficiently and minimizing environmental impact through the entire IT product lifecycle," giving efficient energy use, recycling, and products with low environmental impact as examples.

The results were released in CDW IT Monitor. CDW owns Berbee (more articles) in Madison, Wisconsin. This month it said its Madison datacenters will use energy only from renewable sources.