Were your hopes for growing adoption of green IT dashed by the non-agreement at COP 15 in Copenhagen? Are you dismayed by the weak prospects for cap-and-trade legislation in the US during 2010? Forrester's latest Green IT survey results give us some reason for optimism — it turns out that regulatory compliance is a weak motivation for companies' pursuit of more sustainable computing operations.

When we asked IT practitioners at 600 enterprises around the world about their top motivations for pursuing green IT operations, regulatory compliance was the 7th-most frequently cited reason, with just 16% of respondents. What's at the top? Cost and cost. Reducing energy expenses (66%) and reducing other IT operating expenses (42%) have been the strongest drivers for green IT since we began our survey work on this topic in 2007. See the full survey results in our latest Green IT Market Overview report, here.

So fear not, even in the absence of significant regulatory or policy moves this year, good old-fashioned business motivators like profitability and customer demand will continue to push companies to adopt more sustainable processes and practices — in their IT organization and beyond.