Going green pays in Europe, survey finds

It pays to go green, at least for European businesses that are making a real effort at it, according to a new survey by IDC and IT services company Atos Origin. Companies that are considering sustainability and their direct impact on the environment, rather than just energy cost savings, are seeing as much as a 2 percent increase in their profits, in contrast to businesses who may be looking more at the bottom line, said Network World.

Unfortunately, there are few who are following suit, the survey found. Vernon Turner, senior vice president of enterprise infrastructure at IDC, noted that green IT funding and initiatives are still lacking within IT companies. In fact, as much as 78 percent of registrants at IDC's Green IT Forum event in New York last week, said their businesses have no corporate budgets in place for environmental or sustainability plans.

The survey interviewed 165 senior executives in the manufacturing and retail sectors.