Will Greenwash survive a recession?

I have just come back from this week's green IT event - I have been to four already this year I think. The latest was the FinExpo Green City event in Liverpool Street, London. As the name suggests, the conference looked at all things financial and City with a green spin. Speakers included HSBC and Citi, owners of CitiBank and other brands.

There was a lot of talk about how being green was also good for the "back pocket" and other stuff you would expect to hear from banking types coming over all green and environmental.

I popped a question during a panel debate around whether green strategies would survive a real financial crunch? Environmentally sustainable efforts do often end up being financially beneficial in the long term but often come with high up-front capital costs – and capital and credit is not exactly plentiful at the moment. The panel included representatives from HSBC and Citi, as well as Cisco.

No one really rose to the question apart from Cisco's Neil Harris, who admitted that it's a "testing time for green commitments across all organisations" but that "green is just a fabulous driver for change in an organisation. Previously you might have been caught between IT and HR and it helps us get difficult projects underway in the business".