ICT industry slow to take up low carbon opportunities

A report, by Gartner, the global IT consultant and research company, in association with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), assessed the low carbon and environmental leadership of 15 global information and communication providers. It found that while a few were showing leadership in environmental and climate matters, others were not doing enough, while overall the industry was failing to take up low carbon opportunities, such as smart buildings and grid applications and travel substitution.

Those companies that stood out on environmental and climate leadership and innovation were Fujitsu, BT, HP and IBM. However, Cisco, China Mobile, Lenovo, Wipro, Nortel, Verizon, Dell and Google were less glowing.

In all, 24 ICT providers were invited to take part in the research, but nine declined. They were Accenture, Acer, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, EDS, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun and TCS.

The findings were presented at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2008, currently being held in Cannes, France, until tomorrow (November 7).

The survey revealed that Fujitsu, HP and IBM have a well-structured, balanced, long-term environmental plan showing a level of commitment across the business.

HP, BT, IBM and Fujitsu all made low carbon solutions a driver for innovation and profit, the report showed.

In terms of managing supply chain, Nokia excelled, while IBM and BT also scored well, but Cisco, China Mobile, Lenovo, Dell and Google did poorly.

“They do not have the level of visibility and assurance of good practice that we would expect and fall well short of the leaders,” said Simon Mingay, research vice president at Gartner.

The Gartner and WWF report highlighted that Google did not have an environmental policy and that Nortel and Cisco possessed environmental policies that were "bland and non-committal" compared to BT’s policy.

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 Mingay.

Companies without GHG targets at the time of the survey included Nokia, Ericsson, Google, Nortel, Cisco, SAP, and Wipro.

Lenovo and Cisco have recently set themselves a target.

While none of the respondents could be accused of green washing, the survey found that Cisco and Dell had a tendency toward "more talking than action" on their internal climate programme.

The report said that while it was difficult for ICT providers to prove how green they were, there was 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.

Dennis Pamlin, global policy advisor at WWF, added: “The winners in a low carbon economy will be those that realise which products and services have a material and observable effect on carbon emissions and especially those that create low carbon feedback.”