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This article first appeared in our Sustainable IT special issue of of My Green Pod Magazine, distributed with The Guardian on 05 November 2021. Click here to subscribe to our digital edition and get each issue delivered straight to your inbox
‘Sustainability’ is now an everyday word, and rightly so. Behaving ‘more sustainably’ is a priority within our personal and professional lives and its importance for businesses of all sizes cannot be underestimated.
Irrespective of potential material gain, businesses must do what is right rather than what is commercially expedient. However, businesses don’t make decisions, people do.
The time for indecision and procrastination has passed.
Recognising this is one thing; appreciating how to approach it successfully is often seen as an entirely different challenge. In fact, ‘challenge’ misses the point. Why should doing the right thing be considered a challenge? It’s an expectation.
IT and computing are responsible for 5% of all global carbon emissions. By comparison, the airline industry contributes 3.7%. IT’s contribution is perpetuated by the throwaway mentality associated with devices and accessories, which leads to unforgivable mountains of e-waste.
It shouldn’t be this way. It doesn’t have to be this way. Consenna, as a leading digital enablement business in the IT Channel, believes resellers have a pivotal role to play and a strong desire to play it.
The journey starts with device manufacturers increasing commitments to reducing the environmental impact of their production processes, materials and supply chains.
Increasingly, well-informed customers are holding vendors to account in the best way they can, by offering their custom to those upholding the highest environmental credentials.
We recently worked with Acer and sustainability consultancy Px3 to launch ‘Green Rewards’ across Europe. Centred around an intuitive online portal and project calculator, it allows IT resellers to access, for the first time, immediate insights into the environmental impact of their customers’ purchasing and recycling decisions – all in a personalised sustainability impact report.
Next is the distribution network – from vendors to resellers – that makes devices available. Ingram Micro, which already has a long-standing relationship with Fairphone, recently announced a partnership with sustainable IT specialist Circular Computing. The partnership gives resellers and customers easy access to carbon-neutral,
remanufactured laptops.
Beyond this, up to 10,000 resellers engage daily with millions of end customers, where the greatest change can be realised. The potential for change is enormous if ‘doing the right thing’ becomes the policy we all choose to adopt.
At Consenna, we know change doesn’t need to be hard, expensive or time-consuming. However, we recognise resellers represent a very diverse community, engaging all manner of markets, products and customers. One size will not fit all.
Market focus defines the products resellers recommend to their customers. If you’re unaware of a more sustainable choice, you’re not going to be able to promote it.
While some resellers understand and promote sustainability, there are many more who would like to. Where is the objective support that many crave, but lack the time and budget to source?
With this in mind we created Consenna Carbon™. Simply, this is an entirely free-to-use platform designed to equip IT resellers with an extensive menu of self-serve sustainability-focused marketing campaigns, training and meaningful education modules on what it all means. It’s free because it’s the right thing to do.
All resellers, regardless of size, need to be equipped with the knowledge, content and real-world data that will enable them to have bold, challenging conversations with their customers.
The fact a customer has always bought a certain brand, device or service shouldn’t mean they continue to do so if more sustainable choices are available.
Is a printer necessary when a document management system makes more sense? Is a top-of-the-range smartphone required for every member of a workforce when a sustainable, robust, modular, designed-to-last Fairphone meets their needs?
Should a conversation around purchasing new devices end with a purchase order or include an action plan for the safe and responsible disposal, or remanufacture, of the existing devices? Customers will remember who posed those questions.
Beginning their sustainability journey just became a question of ‘why not?’ rather than ‘why now?’
With access to knowledge, content and real-world examples to communicate sustainability effectively to their customers, Consenna Carbon provides a map for the journey that’s free for everyone.
Our vision is to create IT Channel sustainability ambassadors, equipped to out-manoeuvre their competitors while providing those well-informed customers with a great choice. After all, sustainable IT is now. It is non-negotiable. It is right.
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