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Recession Helping, Not Hurting, Green IT, Surveys Find

Corporate purchases of green IT equipment will remain fairly strong amid the economic crisis, separate reports from IDC, Forrester Research, and Panel Intelligence indicate. These will not be purchases made in spite of the recession, though -- they will be made because of it.

According to Forrester, 10% of the 1,022 global businesses it surveyed in October are accelerating their green IT initiatives, 5% are scaling back green projects, and 38% are maintaining the pace of their initiatives. Among those pursuing green IT, 67% of respondents said reducing energy-related operating expenses was a motivation for pursuing a green IT agenda, up from 55% one year ago.

Panel Intelligence, in a survey conducted days before the U.S. presidential election in November, found that despite a declining U.S. economy and lower oil prices, 80% of corporate sustainability executives surveyed from across North America plan to maintain or increase levels of sustainability-related spending in 2009. Panel's survey data was based on responses from 65 sustainability executives of Fortune 500 companies.

Nearly 55% of respondents said they observe no specific financial criteria when evaluating sustainability projects for their respective organizations. Rather, sustainability was seen as an opportunity to achieve a greater competitive advantage. That's because sustainability is starting to be required by customers and supply chain partners, says Panel.

According to Panel, sustainability and clean-technology spending, as a percentage of corporate revenue, are expected to increase 73% through 2010, and 82% of respondents rated energy efficiency as the most important area of focus and investment currently.

A joint survey by Dell and IDC found that 46% of IT buyers in the U.K. already have a green IT strategy in place, while another quarter plan to implement one within the next 24 months. The results put U.K. organizations well above the European average as surveyed by IDC, but second behind German companies, which reported the highest level of green IT maturity.

Separately, a lagging-indicator survey by IDC -- its quarterly server report -- offers additional support of green growth: Despite overall declining third-quarter 2008 server sales, the blade server market showed growth, with factory revenue growing 29.5% year over year. Jed Scaramella, senior research analyst in IDC's Enterprise Computing group, attributes the growth to energy efficiency, serviceability, and flexibility benefits derived from the consolidated platform.

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