Research from Cutter Consortium's Benchmark Review shows that momentum is growing for green IT at firms that don't yet have eco-friendly policies in place.

European firms are ahead of their U.S. counterparts when it comes to plans to reduce their "environmental footprints,” with nearly 60 percent having plans in place, as opposed to just 37 percent of American companies.

Half of those organizations surveyed that are still without long-term environmental impact plans intend to have strategies in place in the next two years, with 25 percent of respondents saying plans should be in place within 12 months. Just one in 10 say they “never” intend to put such plans in place, with 35 percent saying they did not know what the future holds in this area.

About one-third of enterprises in the survey have policies in place to reduce energy consumption by IT infrastructure, with another third having plans in place to do so and the remaining third with no plans; 60 percent had plans in place or on the way to purchase more energy-efficient technology. Almost 80 percent have or plan to have policies to reduce waste in IT, and almost as many have or plan changes in IT practices in order to save energy.

Organizations are hip to the environmental benefits of telecommuting, and about three-quarters of them either provide tools to collaborate at a distance or plan to do so in the near future. About two-thirds of the surveyed enterprises are pursuing paperless business processes.

Lagging the field: just over one-third are using or strongly considering renewable energy sources to power IT operations, and more than two-thirds have yet to consider software that helps reduce energy consumption and waste.