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Cisco the greenest of all of IT concerns, says Greenpeace

How green is thy IT company? Cisco, Ericcson, IBM and HP top Greenpeace's newest list out today.
Written by John Dodge, Contributor

Greenpeace said today Cisco now sits atop its Cool IT Leaderboard ranking large tech companies by their commitment to reducing global climate change.

Greenpeace credited Cisco's efforts to reduce emissions in its own offices as well its use of smart grid technology. See Greenpeace's chart to see the top ten. From Greenpeace's press release:

credit: Greenpeace

“To play a significant role in helping make sure global greenhouse gas emissions peak by 2015, IT companies need to deliver upon the promise that their technology can provide substantial climate savings today,” said Greenpeace Campaigner Casey Harrell.  “Leaders such as Cisco are actively investing in climate solutions, while others are merely signaling  commitments, hoping that lofty words are as good as action.”

Google took sixth place, but came in for praise from Greenpeace. Google CEO Eric Schmidt was especially lauded.

"Perhaps no company demonstrates IT’s potential to make a difference while also representing the industry’s significant contribution to climate change more than Google...Schmidt has been vocal on the failure of the current political system to get the policies right to drive transformative investment in clean energy technologies."

A month ago, I blogged about Greenpeace's initiative  to reduce CO2 emissions from data centers. In that post, I mentioned how Greenpeace also ranks IT company CEOs on their green greatness. IBM CEO Sam Palmisano got the top spot in that contest, but Big Blue despite edging out HP for the CoolIT Leaderboard's third spot was not mentioned in its press statement. Cisco CEO John Chambers is fifth.

Greepeace does not mention any companies by name, but generalizes about how some IT concerns are using "green" as little more than a marketing strategy.

"...others seem unable to decide if IT climate solutions are a significant business opportunity or a simple marketing strategy."

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This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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