Businesses are committed to eco but IT lags behind

Almost two thirds of businesses have environmental or green practices in place. That's according to the eco responsibility survey run in the last EDGE. Thanks to your support we received more than 1,500 responses from 758 organisations, large and small, across ANZ.

The research shows that while 60 per cent of companies have environmental business practices in place, only 27 per cent have green plans in place for the IT department.

However, 48 per cent of those surveyed already have, or will, deploy eco technology within the next 12 months. A positive step as in Sun's experience, a medium sized company can save hundreds of thousands in energy costs through eco technology.

And the survey said... key results at a glance

Read more about the eco responsibility survey results here

Highlights include:

From the data centre to the PC, up to 20 per cent of total energy costs is typically generated by the IT department. Skeptics argue that it's impossible to green power hungry facilities such as data centres. However, eco technology helps to:

• cut power consumption
• lower carbon emissions, and
• save costs

Therefore, it's good for business and good for the environment.

Keen to see green technology at work? Read these real life case studies for global insights into the business benefits of eco responsible IT.

Green from the core to the desktop

Sun's UltraSPARC T1 CoolThreads processor powers the Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers, and draws about as much power as a household light bulb.

With the best performance per watt of any processor available, Sun's systems deliver up to twice the performance, using one third of the energy and half the space.

Our SunRay thin client solutions offer green technology at the desktop and consume only 4 watts of power - significantly less than the 100+ watts a regular PC uses.

Per desktop per year this saves you around $100 in electricity costs. Based on 100 desktops, this could reduce your greenhouse gas emissions by 80 tonnes.

Sun's UK sustainability guru to visit Canberra

Later this month, Sun's UK sustainability guru, Richard Barrington will land in Australia. As head of public policy for Sun, Richard will host media events in Canberra and Sydney.

Among a raft of responsibilities, Richard is Sun's representative for the UK's Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change. As such, he was recently invited to join the UK Government's 'Business Task force on Sustainable Consumption and Production'.

Richard will outline the current challenges facing public sector uptake of environmental initiatives, as well global examples of the cost benefits of deploying green technology.

Evaluate your eco needs today