Opinion

posted on 08 July 2008 11:39

Brocade says that research it commissioned based on a survey of more than 8,000 European IT directors and board-level decision makers shows that only 40 percent of respondents would rate their organisation’s “green” credentials as “not at all good” or even “poor”. What it does not say though is that 60 percent, a majority, had positive views, Brocade's green glass being 40% empty instead of 60% full.

(UK firms were behind the rest though, with nearly 60 percent of the respondents rating their companies negatively.)

The survey polled qualified respondents from the UK, France, Germany, Benelux, Italy, Spain, Austria and Switzerland. For a monority the positive ratings seemed to have been gained without the firms involved actively pursuing green IT purchases.

Only 38 percent of the respondents overall said they are actually concerned about their company’s energy usage and carbon footprint, with less than a fifth reporting that they actively seek to purchase environmentally friendly IT products. In the UK, the comparable numbers were 37 and 16 percent respectively. More than 60 percent of the overall respondents agreed that the OpEx spend on energy was “too much”. 

Ulrich Plechschmidt, Brocade EMEA VP, viewed the results as showing a negative attitude towards environmenental attitudes:  “It is worrying to see the lack of concern over green credentials, considering the amount of recent industry pressure and media attention that has been given to this subject. From our perspective it is a concern that people have energy worries, and are not taking aggressive steps to buy more efficient, environmentally friendly products. This is one of the simplest steps that companies can take to not only reduce their carbon footprint, but also reduce costs.”

With a majority of respondents having a positive view of their firms' green credentials the worry about a perceived lack of concern might be thought over-stated.

Brocade's release on the matter has more examples of a half-full glass being thought half empty: 'However, it is not all doom and gloom. Almost two thirds of respondents stated that they are beginning to look at ways of reducing energy output, but that still leaves over a third of European businesses who are not." Once again a majority of respondents are looking at ways of reducing energy outpout but Brocade focuses on the third who are not.

Plechschmidt commented: “It surprises me that in the current economic environment European businesses are not opening their minds to the Green debate, but instead choose to waste precious resources on energy inefficient solutions."

Given the majorities in the survey for positive green activities he could be construed as over-egging his green pudding - a kind of negative greenwash.

It seems a matter of common sense to take the view that the green tide is turning and that there has been a sea change in attitudes recently. The Brocade survey appears to be showing that the green tide is gathering force, notwithstanding an impression, which admitttedly could be mistaken, that Brocade's marketeers might prefer it to be not so advanced so that their marketing messages could have more weight.

^{[Chris Mellor.]}