Reuters, via the New York Times, reports that Green IT, which took a hit earlier this year, is seeing some renewed investment life.

According to Reuters:
"Investment is seen shifting from capital-intensive energy generating technologies, such as solar and wind, to those associated with energy storage, transportation and efficiency."

Still, experts say investment probably won't reach the highs of late 2008, when dollars pushed toward the $3 billion mark.

There are plenty of reasons why green initiatives make sense, as we've been saying for years. But Ananth Krishnan, CTO of Tata Consulting Services, points a specific motivation.

In the interest of cost cutting (or cost savings--take your pick), Krishnan says the mandate is coming from a new source.

"CFOs are getting more interested now,'" he told me recently. "They're saying, 'IT, what else can you do to help?'"

That's a big shift from the green pushes of 2006, 2007 and 2008, when most of the mandate emanated from corporate boards and CEOs. A big thrust then was corporate branding--to be viewed a good corporate citizen.

Now, with the recession putting pressure on organizations to pare down and boost efficiencies, finance chiefs are pushing their IT chiefs to look again at eco-friendly IT initiatives.

We'll see what happens, what with all the other pressures and priorities being put on CIOs in these tough times.

But tell us, IT pros: Are you seeing an uptick in interest in green IT strategies?