Businesses striving for green IT should look to cloud computing to reduce their emissions and save money, according to a post by Mandira Srivastava on Small Biz Technology's website. She said with energy to data centers increasing, using the cloud could be a great way for companies to limit their carbon footprint.

By using cloud computing, businesses can save a lot of money on the amount of power used by computers compared to what it would be with much larger servers. Startup companies can also save a lot of money on utilities she said, even though there may have to be more spent on computer maintenance.

The Carbon Disclosure Project released a report that found cloud computing can reduce energy consumption while improving efficiency within a company. The group estimates that by 2020, large companies in the United States that use the technology can save $12.3 billion in energy costs and reduce energy output by 200 million barrels of oil annually

A study by Accenture, Microsoft and WSP Environment and Energy estimated that a company with about 100 people can reduce its energy output and consumption by about 90 percent by using cloud applications.