The rising popularity of projects aimed at the ‘greening of IT’ has been well reported for many months now, and many organisations are jumping on the green bandwagon. Whether for ethical, practical, political or financial reasons, it almost goes without saying that the push for more environmentally-friendly IT infrastructures, policies and practices has never been more powerful.

In particular, data centres are under increasing pressure to reduce carbon footprints. A fully equipped data centre of just 30,000 square feet will consume enough electricity to create 44,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in a single year. Yet, despite the increased awareness on environmental issues, it’s not always easy for end user organisations – or indeed their resellers - to know where, or how, to start a green initiative. And, this is where distributors can add enormous value.

The opportunities for resellers to embrace green IT are extensive as customers start to look at the issue from a physical infrastructure perspective as well as a holistic, ‘how do I manage my IT strategy’ point of view. So, in addition to considering leading edge technologies, IT decision makers are also now interested in looking at initiatives around virtualisation, consolidation and information lifecycle management which can themselves form part of a wider technology green strategy.

For many customers, going green is about how they manage both their current and future technology investments, taking a fresh look at how budgets are allocated in order to meet new energy efficiency regulations or simply to give out the right ethical signals to their stakeholders.

Distributors should make a strong commitment to green IT issues. Aside from the strong commercial benefits available to their channel business partners and their customers, they can also contribute to building awareness of the green debate in IT and promote the solutions that require less energy input, without negatively impacting performance.

Distributors can also lead by example by taking steps to reduce their own carbon footprints.