The pressure is on as eighty six percent of IT executives press ahead with their green plans, Forrester and events firm Tech Touchstone found.

Most of the work involved changes in datacentres and desktop environments, they said, in their 'Forrester and Tech:Touchstone Events 2009 green IT UK ' following a survey of delegates at the in London in May.

Half of businesses wanted green IT investments to slash their energy consumption, and four in 10 wanted to extend the life of their technology.

A telecoms IT executive who was interviewed for the report stated: "Costs speak to our management. At this point, any requests for funding of green IT activities must first be supported by a business case that examines costs and the comparative return on that investment."

A number of firms said they could extract funds for green IT projects from their corporate social responsibility budgets. One quarter of those surveyed said green IT played a part in achieving their CSR goals.