Australian organisations seeking to implement environmentally sustainable ICT solutions are primarily motivated by concerns over rising power costs, according to Frost and Sullivan.
The consultancy firm surveyed 101 Australian senior executives with influence over IT budgets, and found that 65 percent of organisations are attempting to reduce power use.
A major concern amongst respondents was the potential impact of emissions trading, with 28 percent of respondents believing it will have a significant financial impact on the business.
But the study found that while 43 percent of respondents have implemented sustainability policies with measurable targets, only 27 percent of IT departments have emissions targets in place.
The respondents were aware of the impact poorly-designed buildings and sprawling data centres can have on an organisation's electricity usage.
Indeed, 32 percent had taken steps to redesign their buildings, and 28 percent of CIOs and IT managers had assumed responsibility of their own data centre power usage.
But just 16 percent of respondents had hired environmental consultants, and only 26 percent had implemented technologies to measure power use.
According to Andrew Milroy, ICT Industry Director of Frost and Sullivan, environmental sustainability is going to become a pressing issue for many ICT departments very soon.
"Regardless of whether being driven by cost or green considerations, CIOs have to consider how to reduce energy consumption before their customers, partners and investors start to demand it," he says.
"Paying more attention to data centre server and storage practices, better planning for data centre capacity and location, plus the introduction of more efficient technologies are all important steps that can be taken now."