The selling point and money-saving element for a business is not so much in becoming more environmentally friendly, but in "improving the bottom line", it has been stated.

Computer news provider IT Pro stated that becoming environmentally friendly was, however, a "handy by-product" from any initiatives that may spring up out of the need for IT-centric businesses to save more money.

The editor of IT Pro, Chris Green, said that the consolidation of data centre resources, the reduction in server numbers and a drop in power consumption was both economically viable and of great "environmental benefit", but still only a handy extra.

He added: "It's lower operational cost and that's directly registered on the bottom line of the business."

Netregs recently revealed that electronic waste was the fastest-growing area of energy loss in the UK, with 1.8 tonnes of it generated every year.

Furthermore, PC World is planning to combat this problem through the introduction of environmentally-friendly computers to its stores.

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent) In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'