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IT Essentials: Proceed on green

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IT Essentials: Proceed on green

A vendor finally grasps the sustainability nettle

On attending a major vendor event in person for the first time in quite a while, one of the big shifts I noted was a major emphasis on sustainability.

Tech companies have been making plenty of noise around this topic for some time, of course, but as Computing's research has revealed, their claims don't always stand up to close scrutiny.

Hard data is impossible to come by, cherry-picking apparently rife. For some, ESG and DEI are acronyms to be sprinkled liberally into reports, preferably alongside a picture of a tree or a globe held in nurturing hands.

The talk is certainly talked, but the walk? Oh, it seems to be raining. Maybe tomorrow.

So it was interesting to see a large IT vendor actually leading its event on this issue, and even more encouraging to hear questions and commentary from the audience of customers, journalists and analysts on a topic which is all too often treated as peripheral, as if we all had alternative planets to go to.

To dispel any visions of Damascence conversions, this is about enlightened self-interest. SAP, for that is the identity of the mystery vendor, makes software rather than the more problematic hardware, and its data centre activities are relatively small. What's more, its best known products, such as ERP, hold much of the data required to track those pesky scope 3 value chain emissions which more and more organisations are required to account for.

Nevertheless, the company has embraced science-based targets for carbon neutrality, is making tangible moves on the circular economy, publishes its CO2 emissions - including scope 3 - in annual reports, and ties executive compensation to reductions in these figures.

"We're eating our own dog food," one executive promised.

We can't check this fact with the dog in question, but we'll be keeping a close eye on how SAP's progress matches with its sustainability promises, as we do with many of the other major tech vendors. For our latest comparison, see AWS v Microsoft Azure: Which is the most sustainable cloud platform?

IT Essentials: Proceed on green

A vendor finally grasps the sustainability nettle

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