Gartner predicts by 2014 carbon impact will be common practice

In Gartner’s predictions beyond 2010, there is a point on carbon reporting be common praicte by 2014.

By 2014, most IT business cases will include carbon remediation costs.Today, server vitalization and desktop power management demonstrate substantial savings in energy costs, and those savings can help justify projects. Incorporating carbon costs into business cases provides a further measure of savings, and prepares the organization for increased scrutiny of its carbon impact.

Gartner goes on to predict the vendors will need to provide carbon life cycle costs.

Economic and political pressure to demonstrate responsibility for carbon dioxide emissions will force more businesses to quantify carbon costs in business cases. Vendors will have to provide carbon life cycle statistics for their products or face market share erosion. Incorporating carbon costs in business cases will only slightly accelerate replacement cycles. A reasonable estimate for the cost of carbon in typical IT operations is an incremental one or two percentage points of overall costs. Therefore, carbon accounting will more likely shift market share than market size.