Green is the color of choice these days. It seems everywhere I look, I see another company marketing its products or services as environmentally friendly, or “Green.” Some of these efforts test the limits of credibility, as described in this wikipedia post on “Greenwashing.”While I appreciate and applaud the increased level of environmental awareness among corporations, as more and more companies attempt to promote themselves as Green, discerning consumers are left with the challenge of trying to separate fact from fiction.IDC took on this challenge for service providers in a recently published white paper, “Beyond Power Consumption: What it Really Means to Go Green” with an analytical framework for evaluating a company based not only on the amount of energy its devices use but also on the company’s policies and business practices. In other words, IDC is looking to see whether networking companies are truly “walking the talk.”How did Cisco do? You can read for yourself or listen to Godfrey Chua, IDC’s Senior Analyst explain his thoughts in a short video interview:I’m off to refill my water bottle, but should you want to learn more about our “green service provider” approach, please check out our brief overview.