Leading firms in Europe are making a sustained effort to go green in terms of IT, it has been claimed.

According to new research by Forrester, IT departments are seen as key in helping to reduce corporate energy consumption, which should help save money and the environment.

It found that IT vendors are being encouraged to seek help from professional service providers to implement green initiatives for the IT operations- including procurement and disposal.

Speaking to business technology website IT Week, Forrester analyst Christopher Mines explained that initial efforts to make IT greener will focus on energy efficiency.

"It's top-of-mind for most clients because problems like growth or power capacity limits, and returns like energy cost savings, are highly tangible," he said.

The firm also predicts that the market for green IT consulting services will be worth around £2.4 billion by 2013, with European spending alone hitting the £1 billion mark in 2014.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent).