Companies in the UK have been found to harbour major concerns over their environmental sustainability, although few are taking action to address this.

According to Datamonitor research, only one out of ten firms are not considering upgrading their IT systems to reduce their power output.

But even so, nearly half of companies have yet to put their plans into practice.

Tim Smart, chief executive of BT Global Services UK which commissioned the study, said that this suggests many firms "may be paying lip service" to sustainability, but are not actually moving ahead with changes.

"The lack of forethought given to how to exploit this opportunity means companies may fail to see real benefit from the efforts they are making - and critically a return on their investments," he said in a statement.

Different sectors of the economy were found to be at varying levels of preparedness for IT sustainability, with financial services firms most likely (35 per cent) to view sustainability as a factor while utilities companies were the least likely (16 per cent).