Today, discussions on green IT go beyond servers and storage equipment. Enterprises, regulators and IT leaders are beginning to look at networking from a broader perspective- in terms of how it can reduce wastage in the areas like the supply chain, productivity, and building construction and management.

Sustainable networking came to light because of the increasing importance of networking in business empowerment. The availability of cost-effective, secure, and efficient tools that support multipoint collaboration, which rely on networking, give enterprises the impetus to replace physical transportation which, according to a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is responsible for 23 percent of the world's energy-related greenhouse gas emissions.

Networking also plays a key role in IT infrastructure management, so much so that improvement in network infrastructure has become crucial to supporting green IT initiatives. For instance, companies that want to replace traditional desktop with thin clients will need an efficient networking infrastructure that supports delivery of low latency traffic; those that need to support mobility and remote access require efficient WAN optimization tools; and the ones that want to enable video conferencing and distribute business critical content across various sites need a consolidated data center network.

But despite the growing awareness, very few firms have actually stepped forward to integrate green networking principles on their IT roadmap, mostly due to a lack of best practices in sustainable networking.

Building a case for sustainable networking could be daunting, but here are some factors you can consider to obtain buy-in from the management and staff.