Greenstone issues guidelines to help resellers support IT departments and maximise the opportunities presented by carbon emissions

..ICT resellers will need to adapt to new client demands...

Tuesday 6th April 2010 - Greenstone Carbon Management, the global specialist carbon solutions company, has issued a three point plan to help resellers support CIOs and IT departments in addressing green IT and measuring carbon emissions. According to Greenstone depleting product margins and greater market competition, will force ICT resellers to adapt to new trends in client demands and to rethink how value added services can be delivered more innovatively.

According to Ram Ramachander, Chief Operating Officer at Greenstone Carbon Management, “The rise of Green ICT represents a unique opportunity for forward thinking companies to deliver great value back to their clients in both cost savings and carbon reduction, whilst increasing their own profitability.  ICT represents ten per cent of total energy consumption in the UK. In the last two years many businesses have seen their energy bills increase significantly some by more than 100%.  Clients can’t control the energy markets but they are taking steps towards becoming far more energy efficient across their entire operation. The carbon footprint associated with ICT, including laptops and PCs, data centres and computing networks, mobile phones, and telecommunications networks, makes ICT one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters.”

Recent estimates put the global carbon emissions of ICT equipment at the same level as the aviation industry. In addition, the UK has introduced legislation, the CRC Energy Efficiency programme, which will impact the UK’s top 5,000 energy consuming companies, both in terms of costs and reputation. These factors and the drive for companies to become more sustainable, are putting additional pressure on the CIO to share the responsibility for reducing a company’s carbon emissions. 

Greenstone Carbon Management outlines a three point plan to help resellers support businesses and to maximise the opportunities presented in meeting today’s carbon emissions challenge.

1.   Measure, report and reduce carbon emissions generated by ICT

Organisations now require their service providers to measure and report the carbon impact of their products and services. Most new tenders, especially in Public Sector, require that clients demonstrate their own carbon emissions as well as the emissions associated with the provision of their solutions. In addition, there is an expectation from most mature clients that the solution will result in a reduction in their ICT carbon emissions over the contract period and that this translates into savings due to efficiencies created in energy and refrigerant usage. 

ICT service providers need to have a full understanding of their operational carbon emissions and those of their solutions. It is also critical that they are able to communicate these in a highly effective manner. The ability to manage clients’ carbon emissions has become an important selection criteria and a competitive risk.

2.   Use ICT to reduce total carbon emissions

There is opportunity too: ICT can help abate far more emissions in a company than their own production and use generates. The reduction of ICT emissions will quickly become a “hygiene” factor and the opportunities to use ICT to reduce overall carbon will become a key agenda item for CIOs. ICT manufacturers and services companies are increasingly innovating new solutions and reconfiguring old ones to deliver energy efficiency through smart buildings, smart manufacturing, smart grids as well as enhancing offerings in dematerialising processes through telecommuting, teleconferencing, ecommerce, document management, etc. Resellers need to have a green portfolio of products and services supporting these projects for their clients.
 
Before an organisation can make any investment decision about the right green technology choice for the company, they need to measure and understand their carbon emission base line. Service providers need to enable their clients to measure their existing ICT carbon footprint so they can demonstrate the impact of their solutions in terms of carbon and costs.

3.   Stay on top of carbon reduction legislation

The CRC Energy Efficiency Programme is a mandatory carbon reduction scheme, targeting large commercial and public sector organisations using more than 6,000MWh of electricity per annum.  ICT resellers may fall into the CRC scheme if they run data centres or outsourced services such as help desks, network management or even logistics facilities.

ICT resellers who fall within the CRC scheme need to ensure that they are in a position to report their carbon emissions to the Environment Agency from April 2010. Companies need to have an accurate and transparent measurement process as there are significant fines for inaccuracy and failure to report. One other feature of the CRC scheme is that the participants’ relative performance in terms of emission reduction will be made public and, inevitably, media and environmental groups will draw attention to the worst performers in the league table. Failing to tackle carbon emissions could prove expensive in reputational, as well as financial terms. The sooner that companies understand the need for a holistic plan to address the CRC scheme, and other measures that will inevitably follow, the lower their risks will be.

Ramachander concludes, “Green ICT represents a great opportunity to deliver cost savings, carbon reduction and increased profitability. Resellers therefore need to get on top of the green IT agenda and by maximising on the opportunities and minimising risks both for themselves and their clients. It needs to be led from senior management as the changes required to service this new demand will permeate throughout the organisation, from operations to sales.”