How much influence does the chief information officer (CIO) wield when it comes to green computing? In a column commissioned for this week's Computing (out Thursday), CIO Connect managing director Nick Kirkland says green inititiatives are invariably driven by the wider organisation - typically the board, finance, human resources and compliance functions set overall policy.

Kirkland says an important consequence of the top down approach, however, is few IT departments have their own specific green computing policy. Results from a recent CIO Connect poll suggest just a quarter (28 per cent) of technology leaders currently have a formal policy to ensure that IT systems become more environmentally friendly.

There is some good news, though. The CIO Connect research also found that a third of chief information officers (CIOs) are sufficiently concerned about green IT that they are starting to explore the use of energy and heat efficient servers in the data centre.

And Kirkland is hopeful that 2008 will be the year that every CIO makes green computing best practice a matter of course: "Although organisations recognise the reputational value of being seen to be environmentally friendly, it is cost savings that could and should be adopted as a true driver for green IT activity."