D3 Technologies Inc. in San Diego has done several things that qualify as “green.” It properly disposes of computer equipment, has replaced CRT monitors with LCDs and started virtualizing servers at its data center 18 months ago.

But saving the environment isn’t the primary reason for any of these actions, according to Bill Pfeiffer, IT manager at the 400-employee engineering services firm. California law dictates the company’s equipment disposal methods, the LCDs are more popular with employees and virtualization is primarily to save money.

“It’s either got to be a law, or it’s got to save money,” says Pfeiffer.

IDG Research Services found in a recent survey on green computing that 54 percent of SMBs (fewer than 1,000 employees) polled said their companies have a higher interest in green initiatives than they did one year ago. Fifty-four percent also report perceiving a real business value to green computing.

Most, however, have yet to take significant steps toward operating a truly green business. Only 13 percent report adopting green initiatives, 12 percent report a green pilot program under way and 19 percent say they plan to adopt some green initiatives within the next year. Another 31 percent of the SMBs polled say their companies plan to adopt green at some point more than a year into the future. Larger, enterprise companies (more than 1,000 employees) polled by IDG report higher levels of green activity, with 39 percent either already deploying or pilot-testing green initiatives.

The most common steps SMBs have taken or plan to take include replacing CRTs with LCDs (68 percent), recycling paper (61 percent), recycling old computers (53 percent), and consolidating systems and/or implementing virtualization (40 percent), according to the IDG survey.

For D3 Technologies, as for most SMBs, any further “greening” would require a strong business case, which, for a small business, can be difficult to demonstrate. For example, Pfeiffer would like to replace most of the company’s PCs with thin clients, which draw only about 34 watts of power compared to the 540 watts consumed by the typical desktop. But management is resisting that because he can’t show an immediate payoff. “At three years out, it’s a wash,” says Pfeiffer. “You don’t start seeing the savings until you’re about five years out.”

Rather than launching specific green initiatives, most SMBs seem to be evolving as necessary into green like National Retail Properties, a real estate investment trust in Florida with 75 employees. As the company refreshes its hardware over the next several years, energy efficiency will be a top priority, says Dan Tervo, vice president of information systems. And now that the cost of virtualization has started to drop, “it’s definitely on the horizon for us.”

Tam Harbert is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.

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