How green is my strategy?

Very few business decisions are now made without some consideration of the environmental impact. But decision makers are also sick of the ‘greenwash’ that is applied to almost every product and service. Is green a big issue or just more hype?

Question 1: Do we need to be constantly told about a product’s green credentials?

All of our panellists agreed - companies need to get their act together when it comes to their green strategies. Tse said: “Every company is different regarding how much value they place on being green and eco-friendly. For some, this is an important issue that they place a high value on, and their products are designed and engineered accordingly.”

Gibbons was a stronger, saying: “A product’s ‘green’ credentials are a very important aspect of its overall characteristics and I don’t know any credible organisation that doesn’t have sustainability as part of its underpinning values.”

Both Tyrer and Deguara agreed that we are still at the beginning of the green journey. Tyrer told us: “Some level of green credentials is expected by the market; however, not all green standards are uniform.”

Deguara had some strong words, saying: “We’re nowhere near the point where we can assume the technology we use has either been designed for minimal environmental impact or can be assumed to help us reduce our own impact on the environment.”

Question 2: Is it too hard to compare products and services due to a lack of uniform standards?

The onus is still on buyers of technology to figure out what everyone’s different claims about greenness and environmental friendliness mean. Tyrer suggests: “There are a number of different standards that measure greenness which make the environment complex. Organisations need to make a concerted effort to consider the expected longevity of the infrastructure, looking at areas like CAPEX vs OPEX, and return on investment over the lifetime of products or services.”

This makes it hard for business, as there’s no way to compare apples with apples if everyone is using different systems to articulate their green credentials. “If you really want to gauge the environmental impact of a product you’re using, the data may be available but trying to find it can be the challenge,” said Deguara.

For those selling services that they’re touting as green, the challenges are different.

“If a company makes green marketing a priority, they should offer measurements that are easily understood by their target audience, otherwise the message will be lost. Despite the fact that there is no uniform standard for measuring greenness, companies should still be able to communicate how their product or service is eco-friendly using easily understood units of measurements,” said Tse.

Will standards make a difference? Gibbons said: “I am not sure if standards would change this situation much, as every company needs to assess sustainability from their unique set of circumstances and strive for the very best outcome; however, standards may be useful in encouraging us to benchmark against the minimum acceptable level and give the public a point of reference when comparing between different organisations.”

Question 3: Is green technology a part of strategic planning for IT managers?

All four panellists agreed that energy efficiency and green technology were significant influences in IT strategic planning. “Green technology has become increasingly important for strategic planning for CIOs and IT managers,” said Tyrer.

Within Fiji Xerox, Gibbons said: “Green technology is one of the critical lenses we pass over the plan to confirm that it is robust and complete. In my opinion, we are taking a green approach anytime we reduce power consumption, reduce floor space, reduce infrastructure or other ‘costly’ IT enablers.”

This highlights an important consideration. ‘Green’ is not a product or service that can be purchased and deployed. It’s a way of doing things that influences all service delivery.

Deguara said: “When you’re talking IT, green technology and energy efficiency are synonymous. Computers are among the biggest users of power, and power is still - on the whole - produced from non-renewable resources. Implementing an energy-efficient strategy across every facet of a computer room or data centre can save companies millions of dollars.”

Interestingly, Tse felt that the key influence for IT adoption of green and energy-efficient technology came from outside the IT department and from the C-suite.

“Typically, the green initiative does not come from the IT department, but rather company leadership. If the organisation has a goal to reduce its carbon footprint or ‘go green’, a directive will be given to the IT department to find a product that most closely matches those standards,” she said.

Question 4: Is green tech only a data centre issue?

It’s easy to confine IT’s use of green initiatives to the data centre and choosing PCs that comply with some environmental standard such as EPEAT. However, all four experts agreed that this was a superficial view of IT’s capacity to apply environmentally sound practices across the entire portfolio of service delivery.

“Rising energy costs coupled with the increasing number of devices connected to the network will force all areas of business to look for ways to become more energy efficient. In fact, plug loads and IT device energy use in commercial buildings accounts for nearly 5% of all energy use in the US; by 2030 that energy use is expected to increase 36%,” said Tyrer.

Gibbons pointed to his company’s BYOD programs and how it can reduce the company’s environmental impact simply by reducing the number of devices each individual uses. Instead of having a device for work and one for personal use, BYOD has substantially reduced the number of devices being used.

However, the data centre does remain a critical element in IT’s planning and delivery.

“Data centre infrastructure in many cases uses more power than the IT equipment in isolation, which is why advances in the energy efficiency of data centre cooling, cooling methods, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and power distribution is so critical,” added Deguara.

Question 5: Are CIOs demonstrating how green technologies can benefit the entire business?

Tse said: “CIOs have the challenge of encouraging their employees to become more eco-friendly, and usually that drive comes from regulatory compliance and cost savings. However, many companies will make a commitment to becoming more eco-friendly and build a corporate culture off of that mission.”

This highlights the point our four experts made earlier - creating a greener IT department might start with a project and some specific initiatives but it will only work when it’s instilled in everyday operations and embedded into work practices and culture.

Gibbons pushed this home, saying: “Regulatory compliance and cost saving targets are a given, baked into strategic planning now through years of effort and application. There are cost and environmental benefits to underpin the BYOD business case; however, the real benefit of this strategy is a better user experience, which better meets the consumers’ individual needs.”

There is a perception that ‘going green’ means spending more money, which might stop companies from implementing more environmentally friendly technologies in favour of cheaper solutions. However, Deguara said: “The bigger picture benefits of using green technology are more important to some than the dollars and cents that can be demonstrably made or saved using it. But even if the use of ‘green’ is more financially than ethically motivated, its importance isn’t diminished.”

Corporate social responsibility is a term that is starting to find its way into IT strategy documents. The benefits of implementing green technologies may go further than being a simple measurement of better financial outcomes through power saving.

“CIOs are increasingly finding that green technologies are at the forefront of corporate social responsibility policy and initiatives - for this reason it’s important that they have a good grasp of the complexity and issues at hand with green technologies,” said Tyrer.

Image credit ©iStockphoto.com/Salawin Chanthapan