IT managers need "more information and guidance" in order to improve their companies' energy efficiency, according to one industry expert.

ComputerWeekly.com claims that although computing manufacturers have taken some steps towards improving the energy efficiency of their business, there is still a general lack of awareness in the IT industry.

John-Paul Kamath, deputy technology editor for ComputerWeekly.com, said: "Manufacturers [are] looking at ways in which they can both design energy efficient products, and also help convey information to IT managers about what exactly energy efficiency is."

He added that, at the moment, an issue for IT managers is how they measure the energy efficiency of their data centres, relative to their neighbours.

"One of the problems that we've heard from our readers is that there are currently no metric [measurements], aside from energy bills, of how energy efficient you are," explained John-Paul.

Last week, chairman of computing manufacturer IBM, Graham Whitney, claimed at the Corporate IT Forum that the global IT sector needs a Kyoto-style set of climate targets, if it is going to deliver significant carbon savings.

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