There's a lot of wishful thinking when it comes to detailing the bottom line benefits that can accrue to companies who pursue a green IT strategy. Enterprises make assumptions that they'll improve the bottom line by improving their IT department's environmental record. But is it, in fact, true? A just-released report from the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Accenture Lawrence Berkeley Labs, the federal Department of Energy, and others, shows that in fact, companies can gain very big benefits by greening their data centers. The "Data Center Energy Forecast Report" study, based on case studies with 17 different companies, reveals that using the right techniques and technologies, a data center can save a full 55 percent of its energy costs by going green. The report examines 11

If you're looking to green your IT infrastructure, one of the most important things you can do is choose the right partner, one that takes the environment and climate change as seriously as you do. How to judge whether a partner does that? One way is to examine their own environmental practices. If they are green themselves, they're more likely to treat your IT green concerns seriously as well.

That's always tough to do. But a recent report can help. The recently released Climate Counts Company Scorecard from Climate Counts rates top hardware and Internet/Software vendors -- as well as companies in many other fields -- for how seriously they take climate change.

The group used a scale of 0 to 100 to rate companies. They used 22 separate criteria for their ratings. The

If you're an IT pro, there's a big green bus headed your way. The future of your career may depend on whether you get on board and take the wheel, or instead become roadkill.

How green an IT infrastructure is will soon become as important to corporations as other traditional means of measuring IT effectiveness, such as uptime, availability, and service level agreements (SLAs). In fact, don't be surprised if corporations devise a variety of green SLAs that IT will have to meet. There are plenty of reasons for this, from simple cost-savings to being want to be seen as a good citizen.

If you're an IT pro, though, going green may well be new to you, and you may not know where to begin. So here are five simple ways to get started going green. You'll be surprised how simple it

Greening your data center, IT department, and PCs can seem an overwhelming task, requiring months of planning and corporate buy-in, as well as big-budget items that will pay off in the long run, but cause financial pain right now. But it needn't be that way. In fact, as I'll explain in this column, there are plenty of simple steps you can take today to green IT in your enterprise that take little effort, and little or no money. As I explain how to do it, I'll also show how other enterprises have done it as well, including several that recently were recognized by Computerworld as being green IT pioneers.

If you're looking for simple solutions, the best place to target when it comes to greening your data center and computer use throughout your organization is with power

Want to make sure that your next IT or computer purchase is environmentally friendly? Unfortunately, there's no equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for making sure that your hardware is as green as possible.

However, there are some organizations that rate PCs, laptops, and printers for how environmentally friendly they are. Follow their advice, and you'll go a long way for buying hardware that's as green as possible. In the long run it will pay off -- not just for the environment, but for the bottom line as well, because the greener your hardware, the less power you'll use.

Whether you're buying hardware for a large corporation, a medium or small business, or your home, here's where to go for helping make sure the hardware you buy is environmentally