IBM, HP lead the way on green IT [Video]

Of those vendors that did respond, IBM stood out in virtually every category, particularly when it came to its internal green initiatives. HP was also high on the list, with good overall performance.

Cisco  could be doing better, Mingay said. “There’s a little bit more talking than doing,” he said. Other companies that fall into the middle ground include Nortel , Dell and Lenovo.

Surprisingly, Google did not score well in the survey. The company has more than 1 million servers and therefore is a huge energy user, but it has no greenhouse gas targets, isn’t very transparent about its green strategy and is not using much in the way of renewable energy, Mingay said. “We expected a higher score,” he said.