June 24, 2008

Vendors Should Highlight Cost Savings Of Green IT

GreenFactor’s recent survey of IT decision makers found that more than 70 percent would either “‘probably’ or ‘definitely’” increase their preference for a brand’s green products if they were convinced of the positive impact on the environment and business and nearly 60 percent said they would expect to pay a premium for green products.

However, measurements of GHG emissions or pounds of e-waste or kilowatt hours saved are harder to wrap your head, or fingers, around than cold, hard cash, sustainability reporter Ted Samson reports in InfoWorld. Businesses and consumers alike value cost savings at least as much as environmental benefits.

Servers and PCs built for energy efficiency, along with virtualization and power management software, can have easily measurable payback, he says.

In a separate article, Sampson says that organizations investing in green hardware increasingly find that energy savings, extended product lifecycle, and other benefits more than make up for the upfront investment, or what he calls, “the price of greenovation.”

But he also asks whether companies are “putting too much or too little emphasis on ROI as opposed to environmental benefits — or vice versa”.

Even if companies do pay a slightly higher sticker price for a green product, he says, energy efficiency, longer life, and other benefits often make up for the cost, plus some.

According to the Green Electronics Council, “manufacturers and purchasers will actually save almost four billion dollars over the life of EPEAT products sold in 2007, primarily from reductions in energy use.

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