The carbon footprint of the IT industry is set to exceed that of the aviation industry, it has emerged.

A report from environmental consultancy Global Action Plan entitled An Inefficient Truth revealed that just one in five IT departments in the UK are aware of their energy costs.

The survey of 120 IT professionals also found that 86 per cent of those asked were unaware of their IT department's carbon footprint.

Director of Global Action Plan, Trewin Restorick, said: "ICT equipment currently accounts for three to four per cent of the world's carbon emissions and ten per cent of the UK's energy bill.

"With a carbon footprint now equal to the aviation industry, ICT, and how businesses utilise ICT, will increasingly come under the spotlight as governments seek to achieve carbon-cutting commitments."

Mr Restorick underlined the extent of the problem by highlighting that the average server has roughly the same annual carbon footprint as an SUV doing 15 miles-per-gallon.

An Inefficient Truth found that nearly 40 per cent of servers are under-used by more than 50 per cent, with 37 per cent of those surveyed storing a certain amount of data indefinitely due to government policy.

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