The global carbon footprint of IT is equal to that of the airline industry, warned Gartner today, and green IT will become a key differentiator for outsourcing providers over the next two to three years.

“What you will see as you place your IT and business process bets is that this increasingly becomes an element of the jigsaw you need to consider,” said analyst Ben Pring in his address to the annual outsourcing summit in London.

Pring explained that as CO2 emissions from IT usage match those of the airline industry (with each contributing two percent of the total), we are beginning to see how this reflects itself in our industry with the rise of green consulting services and benchmarking. “Being a good corporate citizen will become more and more important, he said, and a key differentiator for providers between now and 2010.