Only 26% of the IT professionals rated their organisation as ‘good’ or ‘very’ environmentally friendly, while 60% say they regard their companies negatively.

That is not playing on too many minds, though. Only 38% said they were actually concerned about their company’s energy usage and carbon footprint even though a half of those questioned said their companies spent at least a quarter of the operating expenses on energy. A meagre 16% said they actively sought to purchase environmentally friendly IT products.

The IT executives in Italy seemed even less concerned about the environment than their UK colleagues, according to the Brocade survey, while Germany came top of the field with a quarter of respondents saying they actively sought to educate employees to be energy conscious.

Ulrich Plechschmidt, Brocade vice president of EMEA, said it was surprising that companies were generally being so blasé about energy efficiency given the industry pressure to build green credentials and the soaring cost of energy.

“With both environmental and economic pressures on the rise, companies should be proactively looking to achieve the best out of their current solutions in terms of both cost savings and efficiencies. Surely such action is common sense?” he said.