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Not so green . Six out of 10 British IT directors and board-level decision makers rate their organisation’s green credential as ‘poor’ or ‘not at all good’, compared to 40% of European directors, according to a pan-European survey of 8,000 managers commissioned by datacentre networking solutions provider Brocade. Over one third (37%) of UK respondents said they were concerned about their company’s energy use, but less than half that number (16%) actively sought out environmentally friendly IT products.

Ofcom sets target. UK communications industries regulator Ofcom has set a target to reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 25% by 2012 and by 50% by 2020. It plans to do this by reducing the power consumed by its IT systems; driving down building energy consumption; cutting business travel; increasing the use of conferencing technology; expanding fexible working options; putting in place a low-carbon procurement strategy; cutting paper consumption; and recycling more.

The economic downturn and soaring energy prices could be just what’s needed to force businesses to adopt more sustainable practices, if the results of a recent survey are to be believed.

Six out of 10 respondents to a Kyocera-sponsored survey conducted by Loudhouse Research Consultancy said they thought rising energy prices would encourage organisations to become more environmentally responsible.

Currently just four out of 10 (41%) businesses actively seek energy-effcient products, and more than half

(54%) cite cost as a signifcant barrier to implementing green initiatives. To date, there has been a marked preference for initiatives that are easy and cheap to adopt, such as paper reduction initiatives (implemented by 74%), toner cartridge recycling (72%) and waste paper recycling (86%). Far fewer businesses have undertaken more complex activities, such as assessing the environmental credibility of suppliers when making purchasing decisions, which was practiced by less than one third of respondents (29%).

Npower Business is urging large consumers of electricity to assess their energy management strategy before the mandatory Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) cap and trade scheme comes into force in 2010.

The energy supplier is advising even those businesses not affected by the legislation to address energy management in response to the growing importance of environmental credentials in the supply chain selection process.

CRC applies to large non-energy intensive public and private sector organisations with a total metered electricity consumption of more than

6,000 MWh per year, which equates to an annual spend of about £500,000. Qualifying businesses must submit details of their energy use based on their own meter readings or annual energy bills. This year’s fgures will be used to produce the baseline against which businesses must generate year-on-year energy use reductions. npower business recently introduced its m3 (measure, monitor and minimise) portfolio, which includes a toolkit for developing an energy management strategy.

IKON Offce Solutions has launched an electric courier service to help fnancial and professional services company Jones Lang LaSalle reduce its carbon footprint. The electric van will be used for all print and mail deliveries between Jones Lang LaSalle’s offces in CanaryWharf and Hanover Square.

A provider of hosted servers is claiming that the UK’s small and medium-sized businesses could save £44 million in electricity charges and reduce CO 2 emissions by 115 tonnes annually by outsourcing server functions to a hosted provider.

Mark Seemann, product & marketing director at Genesis Communications, said: “In-house servers are permanently switched on and require an air-conditioned environment to run effectively, consuming large quantities of energy. By sharing a data centre across large numbers of customers, third-party providers can reduce overall energy use, saving their customers money on electricity and cutting CO 2 emissions.”

He added: “Large corporate organisations are already leading the way on server outsourcing. John Lewis switched to virtual servers in 2007 and has already dramatically reduced its carbon footprint by 250 tonnes of CO 2 per year. It’s defnitely time for smaller businesses to fnd out what savings they could make by switching.”

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