In light of the current economic situation, corporate environmental initiatives seem to have decreased in priority. However, being environmentally responsible does not necessarily have to cost money. As one Info-Tech client, a CIO of a 500-person US services company, says, “Everybody used to think that corporate social responsibility was equal to spending money on programs that were going to hurt your bottom line, but I think that's not the case with being green.” Since green IT initiatives typically involve a reduction in the use of energy or other consumables, they present a large opportunity to cut costs.
In a recent Info-Tech survey, over 800 respondents were asked to anticipate how the economy will affect their revenues, IT budget, funding for green IT projects, and the prioritization of projects for the next twelve months. As shown in Figure 1, over two-thirds of companies agreed that getting funding for green IT projects would be difficult in the next year. However, an even greater percentage of companies (69%) expect an acceleration of cost-cutting initiatives to be implemented during this time. This implies that, if highlighted for their cost-cutting benefits, green projects can actually get prioritized higher on the IT agenda.