18 Sep 2008
Companies are becoming far more rigorous in examining the environmental credentials of third-party IT suppliers, according to a report from Forrester Research out today.
Procurement requests are becoming focused on the vendor supply chain and on examining the stringency of power-use benchmarks.
"Requests are becoming far more demanding," said Forrester analyst Euan Davis, who wrote the report. "For example, a bank might ask a supplier exactly how they benchmark their IT."
Four-fifths of respondents to the survey of 132 delegates at the Green IT 08 conference said that they look carefully at vendors' power efficiency metrics.
More than three-quarters said they examine vendors' asset disposal strategies, while 43 per cent said they will consider asking suppliers to report on what they have done to clean up their own manufacturing processes, for example removing harmful chemicals from hardware.
Green IT is becoming a market differentiator between vendors, with many of the major players such as HP, Dell and IBM launching high-profile green campaigns to encourage take-up of products.
"This will drive competition among suppliers on the environmental criteria of their products and services, which will drive a continual cycle of improvement far more effectively than could be achieved by regulation," said Emma Fryer, of technology trade body Intellect.
Indexes compiled by groups such as Greenpeace have also increased the pressure on firms to improve environmental credentials.
The Forrester research should indicate to UK businesses that this increasing pressure for green credentials will create a significant cost for them unless organisations get their asset registers in order (Supplier's green credentials come under the spotlight, Computing, 18 September 2008).
Assessment of environmental practices and reporting is certainly on the increase for business and generic statements about green strategies - from procurement to recycling, carbon footprint to flexible working - will not suffice in the long term: organisations will have to prove their commitment through information transparency and auditable policies.
At the heart of such transparency will be consistent, detailed information about the life cycle of every asset - from country of origin through maintenance schedules to final disposal.
Existing green policies such as the WEEE directive and measuring carbon footprints assume a level of asset management far beyond that achieved by the majority of UK business. How many UK businesses can accurately identify the location of their WEEE equipment within the organisation and confirm when it was purchased and from whom? By linking the asset register to a document management system organisations can create the required audit trail, gaining valuable insight into their own assets and adapting to the green economy.
Yours faithfully,
Karen Conneely
Group Commercial Manager
Real Asset Management
Posted by: Karen Conneely 25 Sep 2008
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