Are Vendors Really Keen to Be Green?

Everyone here at Cebit has an environmental pitch; be it greener technology, how long they have been focused on their corporate social responsibility or how little energy their systems take to power up and cool down.

Except there is one snag for the plethora of environmentally enlightened vendors. Having taken a stroll around the numerous halls here, it is obvious that many of these so-called green technology companies are not practicing what they are preaching.

Take IBM, for no other reason than the sheer size of its presence in the hall I have just visited. IBM will no doubt shout to the solar-paneled rooftops about how its new servers have some extraordinarily low power consumption and its products enhance IT efficiency and all the rest. But visiting its stand, which had 99 uplit podiums, as well as several funkily lit large fish tanks (minus the fish), and one huge water and light construction, not to mention the two enterprise-class Z10 servers and the odd Series p running continuously, and one might be forgiven for thinking we are in the middle of an energy boom.

IBM is by no means alone. Most, if not all of the big vendors here have machines running day in, day out, brightly lit stands and a smorgasbord of other energy-sapping devices. Environmentally friendly? It sounds more like attempting to befriend attendees in their current environment to me.