Suppliers' green credentials under the spotlight

Davis: Green enterprise IT is becoming more rigorous

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.