Today, we'll take the various green discussions we've had in the newsletter beyond economics and carbon footprints and look at the variety of reasons and options that companies are employing as a part of their efforts toward Green IT. In a recent survey conducted by the Webtorials Editorial/Analyst Division, a large group of end-users were asked "How important are the environmental (or Green IT) benefits of Unified Communications to your decision [to deploy unified communications]." 

A full 90% of respondents indicated that this was at least a part of the decision, and a quite significant 20% rated the environmental aspects of Green IT as being very important.

Perhaps more surprising, at least in the extent to which the responses were candid, was that an additional 17% stated that "'Green IT' is not important, but any energy/power savings are highly important." Details of these results are available in “Unified Communications Pervades the Enterprise”.

We think this indicates that regardless of the view of Green IT, it is a force that is here to stay, and it’s being taken very seriously. For some, Green IT is pure economics, while for others it’s an important part of social consciousness and stewardship of the Earth. Other factors that are driving this discussion include reducing e-waste and the importance of doing business with other “green” companies.

Of course, one of the aspects of Green IT that we haven’t even touched on is the ability to support remote workers. As we become more and more distance-independent, reducing the number of days that individuals must be in an office – or that they must get on a plane to fly across the country for a one-day meeting – can also have great environmental impact in addition to all of the other efficiencies. Thus, the impact of collaboration and telepresence can be justified on many levels.

For more discussion of these latter points, we’ll simply point you to a recent Webtorials Conversation that features Jim. It’s called “The Mandate for a 21st Century Network Design,” and it’s available here.

And finally, as a Dartmouth alum, Steve feels compelled to point out that he’s been saying “Go Green” for years.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Jim Metzler is vice president of Ashton, Metzler & Associates.