According to a report released at the U.K. House of Commons, lack of standards is hampering efforts of IT departments to purchase sustainable technology.
Vendors must improve the transparency, accuracy and quality of the environmental information that they are providing to users, stated the report titled ‘An Inefficient Truth’.
The report is based on a Green IT survey of IT professionals, conducted by Computerworld UK, on behalf of practical environmental charity Global Action Plan and Logicalis.
“The wave of green froth coming from vendors must be replaced by recognized industry standards. This was rated by users as one of the two most important incentives required to encourage the take up of ‘Green IT’,” the report stated.
Trewin Restorick, director of Global Action Plan, added: “Users are highly dubious of the level of information coming from vendors with a green hue, which is confusing at best. One point that was clear from this research was that users want recognized standards so they can make comparable decisions when purchasing IT equipment.”
Restorick compared the IT industry to the purchase of household electronic goods. “When you buy a white goods product, there is a clear energy label on it. There is a standard across the whole industry. The IT community needs similar standards, so that IT professionals know exactly the energy efficiency of a product on a like-for-like basis.”