IT Giants Apathetic towards Reducing Carbon Levels
By CXOtoday Staff
Mumbai, Nov 05, 2008 1843 hrs IST

An assessment of 24 global ICT providers shows that efforts to turn eco-friendly have failed to catch up in the industry. The study was jointly conducted by Gartner and the World Wide Fund of Nature (WWF). Nine providers, namely Accenture, Acer, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, EDS, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun, and TCS chose not to participate.

The survey revealed that although several ICT players are innovating methods to create a low carbon economy, the industry in general has been slow to embrace eco-friendly measures. This, in spite of various opportunities that will be presented to the industry, such as smart buildings and grid applications and travel substitution.

The findings also showed that IT service organisations are quite immature in their environmental programmes and their innovation for a low carbon economy. Most of these have been very slow to recognise their changing market circumstances and the changing risks and opportunities associated with climate change. Only a few of these IT service providers have really thought through the implications of a low carbon economy for their own operations or the potential opportunities it represents for their own business.

Gartner and WWF's report highlighted that Google does not have an environmental policy. Nortel and Cisco possess environmental policies that are bland and non-committal compared to BT's policy, which is specific, challenging and linked to key performance indicators (KPIs).

The survey also showed that self professed leaders lacked an overall greenhouse gas (GHG) target. "An overall GHG target is one of the most basic requirements of a climate change programme, and without it organisations should be sceptical about a provider's overall climate change programme," said Simon Mingay, research vice president of Gartner. Companies without GHG targets at the time of the survey included Nokia, Ericsson, Google, Nortel, Cisco, SAP, and Wipro. Lenovo and Cisco have very recently set themselves a target.

The major difference between the ICT providers was in the way they approach the challenge of climate change. Some focus on their own direct and indirect GHG emissions. Dell and Lenovo are focusing on the 2 % of ICT's global CO2 emissions, whereas BT, HP, Fujitsu and IBM are starting to focus on both the 2 % and the 98 % (e.g. building solutions that target high carbon areas of the economy to reduce the need for travel or transportation). "Those that look at the wider 98 % solutions will drive real innovation and help reduce the overall environmental footprint of their company," said Mingay.

The other striking difference was in relation to influencing the national, regional and international policy and regulation for a low carbon economy. Two companies do close to nothing in this field; China Mobile, and Wipro, and a third - SAP, does very little directly. Mingay noted that while none of the respondents have crossed the line into greenwashing, Cisco and Dell have a tendency toward more talking than action on their internal climate programme. Dell and Nokia have a myopic response to the needs of a low carbon economy compared with companies like BT, IBM, Cisco, and HP that are starting to target high carbon areas of the economy, such as transport solutions, smart grids and buildings.

There is evidence that taking a leadership role in climate change can create a competitive edge. "Organisations increasingly want to do business with ICT providers and look at them as potential partners in innovation to exploit the opportunities of a low carbon economy," said Mingay. However, demonstrating or proving relative "greenness" is very difficult for ICT providers. A lack of standards and metrics against which greenness can be measured exacerbates the problem. This also means that there is no level playing field. The new framework developed by Gartner and WWF will help in the development of a system where companies can be measured. Gartner and WWF will follow up on this study during 2009.

"There is work to do in 2009 and beyond. A particular focus will be needed on a standard approach and methodology for life cycle assessments (LCAs) that measure the varied environmental impacts of a product or service throughout its lifecycle and consequently help reduce its carbon emissions. In addition, ICT providers will need to create innovative solutions with inter-industry partners and show a net reduction in GHG emissions in the context of a macro-economic scale system boundary," said Mingay.