UK worst in Europe for green IT

UK businesses are the worst in Europe for embracing green IT say tech directors.

The majority of IT leaders in the UK, 60 per cent, gave the thumbs down to their firm's environmental credentials, according to a survey of 8,000 executives by data centre networking company Brocade.

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Despite this only 37 per cent of the UK IT directors and board-level managers questioned said they were personally concerned about their company's energy usage and carbon footprint, and just 16 per cent said they sought out green technology.

But energy costs were high on UK companies' agenda, with almost half of UK respondents believing a quarter of their company's operating expenses are spent on energy.

Attitudes across the whole of Europe were generally more positive, with only 40 per cent feeling downbeat about their company's green credentials but still less than a fifth saying they scouted out green technologies.

Germany is rated as having the greenest IT, with only 30 per cent of German IT execs believing their company could do more on environmental issues.

Ulrich Plechschmidt, Brocade VP for Europe, said the findings were disappointing but he believed cost savings would drive green technology forward.

He said: "There is a strong financial incentive, if you are using products which consume a third of the energy as other offerings you could save a six-figure sum over the three- to five-year investment time frame of a data centre network.

"IT directors said they felt there were no green products out there to buy. The technology industry needs to offer more education as to what is available."