Aug. 13, 2008 - With electricity costs heading skyward, you'd think all IT managers would be keeping an eye on the meter - but one in ten still don't make energy efficiency a top priority within their departments, according to a new survey.

The report, from tech solutions firm CDW, canvassed IT execs to find out where energy efficiency stands in IT decision-making priorities, what barriers inhibit adoption of energy-efficient IT systems, and what organizations that reduce their IT energy bills successfully do that sets them apart.

The upshot? While most organizations say they care about reducing energy consumption - and even concede that significant savings are realistic - success comes only with "sharp, persistent focus on energy-efficiency opportunities throughout the IT organization."

And therein lies the rub, according to CDW vice president Mark Gambill. "While energy efficiency has become a ‘motherhood' value in IT, there is often much uncertainty about what to do, primarily because good information is severely lacking," he says. "The first step in reducing energy consumption is to know what you are spending, yet more than 40% of technology professionals say they don't see their organization's energy bill."

(This might even be a low-ball figure. A CIO magazine study published in March found that as many as 76% of companies don't keep track of their IT-related energy use.)

Conversely, when organizations have access to information about their energy use and manage energy consumption, substantial energy savings are possible. The report notes that 39% of IT professionals whose organizations have energy management initiatives successfully reduced their total IT energy costs by as much as 40% a year.

"There is no silver bullet," says Gambill. "Organizations that are successful at reducing IT energy costs dig deeper, attacking the problem more consistently across all facets of their IT systems than other organizations do. More than 90% of them take ownership of their energy bill and advocate efficiency improvements throughout IT operations."

To download The Energy Efficient IT (E2IT) Report: What Works and What Doesn't in IT Energy Reduction, click here.