Fujitsu Green IT benchmark shows size is no guarantee

Company size is not necessarily an indication of an enterprise's ability to deploy Green IT initiatives, according to findings from Fujitsu's Green IT benchmark research for the financial services industry.

In the fourth report undertaken with research partner, Connection Research, Fujitsu surveyed 638 organisations in four countries, the US, UK, Australia and India, looking at areas such as Green IT lifecycle, end user efficiencies, enterprise and data centre efficiencies, the use of IT in carbon reduction and measurement and monitoring. The financial services industry is one of the largest users of IT.

According to the findings, the UK leads the US for Green IT initiatives, ranking above the cross industry average. Australia is on average and India is below average.

"One interesting aspect [of the findings] is the size of the companies which are doing well," Fujitsu global executive director of sustainability, Alison Rowe, said. "It is quite different in each of the regions.

"In Australia and India, the best performing companies are those with 5000-plus employees. But in the UK, it was companies with 100-500 staff and in the US it was those with 500-1000 employees. It is not always the large organisations that are leading the pack, even though the scale of benefits within the large organisation is much greater."

Rowe said Australia was likely to have tighter legislation in Australia for Green IT in the future, particularly around e-waste. Increased energy prices, however, is also likely to have an impact on organisational Green IT strategies.

"I think the price in the market will be what really stimulates investment and creates a stronger business case for the next level of usage, apart from quick wins," she said.

As part of the research, Fujitsu asked organisations whether they employed metrics within the office environment for measuring carbon emissions, for example, how they measure and monitor the ratio of the energy bill that comes from IT. Organisations are also asked about metrics in the data centre.

"We think [metrics] are fundamental to be able to strengthen the business case," Rowe said. "Most countries are doing reasonably well at the quick wins approach but if you are going to build a business case, it is fundamental to have a baseline that you can go back and measure savings against."