Eco-IT will take off because of its potential for cost savings and because new tech usually has some environmental component anyway – whether it’s energy or space savings features or something else, Computerworld reports.That was the result of an informal poll of the 200-plus attendees at Computerworld’s Infrastructure Management World conference.

And when asked whether the notion of green IT is a fad, fewer than a dozen hands went up. More than 90 percent raised their hands when asked if the idea of environmentally friendly computing is a reality.

If nothing else, said Jed Scaramella, an analyst at IDC, energy costs require IT to take a hard look at green technologies. Ten years ago, around 17 cents out of every dollar spent on a new server went to power and cooling. Today, that’s up to 48 cents, and if things don’t change, that number will eventually grow to 78 cents.