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?

Any attempt to green IT should begin with virtualizing your servers, which is one of the fastest and easiest ways to reduce energy use and costs, and reduce the overall carbon footprint of your IT organization. In this column, Andrew Binstock offers clear advice on how virtualization can help, and includes links to useful benchmarks.

With just about every company addressing or beginning to address its environmental impact, a whole new class of job description is emerging: the sustainability leader, an employee at any level of an organization who is responsible for making his or her company greener. Here is what it takes to be an effective sustainability leader.

Is greenwashing really as bad a problem as some are making it out to be?

IBM will spend billions of dollars on its "Big Green" initiative over the next several years. David Metcalfe, Director of Vendantix, takes a look at the initiative, and offers six lessons that IT managers and CIOs can learn from it.

Increasing the efficiency of your data center doesn't have to mean spending a great deal of money. Larry Pepper, senior practice manager for EMC Infrastructure Consulting, shows how you can green your data center and reduce operating costs while working within your existing capital budget.

Until very recently, the need for IT to really include eco-concerns as part of overall strategy did not have universal appeal. But now, due to skyrocketing fuel costs, there is no longer any ambiguity about how much to commit to green. It's now emerging as a mandate for all IT centers, even small ones. In this column, Andrew Binstock examines changes in the structure of IT departments that some experts are suggesting are necessary for enterprises to successfully navigate the green issues.

As a concept applied to IT, "green" is one of those terms in danger of becoming whatever the marketing departments at hardware and software makers want it to be. Robert Houghton, President, Redemtech, offers advice on how to measure and work towards true sustainability.

If you're looking to green your IT infrastructure, one of the most important things you can do is choose a partner that takes the environment and climate change as seriously as you do. One way to do that 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.

Like every smart company, Microsoft is thinking about sustainability.

A recent survey of business managers in the IT sector details some of the challenges and opportunities for tech companies that are setting goals and making plans to go green, and how best to communicate their achievements without downplaying the significant impact of manufacturing in the digital age.

Plenty of IT vendors promise that they're green. But that's not always the case, and Andrew Binstock explains what really makes an IT product green.

IT has suffered an 'eco black eye' over the course of the past year even though its contributions to climate change are minimal compared to other sources. Instead of IT presuming a defensive position in the 'green IT' movement, IT should assert its role as a positive force for change, in which it embraces innovative technologies and uses them to improve energy efficiency across the enterprise.

Energy use is notoriously difficult to calculate in a real-world setting; although SPEC is developing a high-functioning set of benchmarks to manage those numbers, there are some relatively simple tools you can use to set your own benchmarks without waiting for SPEC to release theirs.

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 is to get started, and how quickly you'll start seeing results.