June 4th, 2008

Are you fatigued by green tech news?

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 9:03 am

Categories: Blogroll, air pollution, climate change, conservation, energy, green tech, research

Tags: Green Technology, Green IT, CDW Corp., Heather Clancy

So, this is the time in the progression of green IT and green technology “industry” coverage where the general population starts blaming the media and marketers for excessive story-telling and one too many cute headlines. At least, that’s what a new report out of IT reseller CDW implies.

CDW surveyed its advisory board about this topic and received 557 responses to form the foundation of a new report called “Green Fatigue: Tech Marketers are Overselling Green IT.”

Here’s what it found out (from a very high level):
- Surprise, many people don’t understand what the phrase “green IT” means. And, in fact, many of the respondents had a negative connotation when asked to comment about the topic anecdotally.
- And yet … 74 percent of the CDW advisory board crew said power management and cooling management was “extremely” or “somewhat important.” Only 33 percent said the same of “green IT.”
- Unlike the larger companies surveyed by Forrester in April (which I wrote about in this blog), only 30 percent of the companies that CDW queried on green technology topics have a green initiative.

So, did the CDW report astonish or dismay me?

Honestly, not that much, because while I, personally, respond to the green agenda, I know that others are much more cynical about that whole thing. That’s why I advocate talking not so much about green IT but equating it to lean notions.

There will be a time, I guess, when the green-ness of a given product will pretty much be presumed or assumed. (Whatever verb works for you.)

So, in my mind, the CDW data underscores that businesses of all sizes will respond to the intentions of the green IT community, even if everyone isn’t speaking the same language.

But high-tech vendors also are well-advised to avoid green-washing their marketing messages with too heavy a brush, lest they turn off the very IT professionals that really DO believe in power management, cooling, data center consolidation and other green IT concepts.