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Follow UsMore and more companies are adopting the green mantra with their eyes set on infusing environment-friendly measures into their systems...not just to match footsteps with their competitors but also as a responsibility towards mother earth. A great awakening indeed!
Greenpeace recently released Ver 4 of the CoolIT Leaderboard rankings in a bid to track the efforts made by companies. The CoolIT Leaderboard rankings evaluates top IT companies across the spectrum on their efforts to provide economy-wide climate solutions, reduce emissions from their own operations, and lobby for science based climate and energy policies. The latest assessment of 17 global IT companies by Greenpeace reveals signs of climate leadership and penalizes inaction.
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The Cool IT Leaderboard is updated regularly to track the progress of the largest IT brands towards achieving economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions reductions of 15% by 2020. The Leaderboard includes a cross-section of the most significant and influential companies in the sector, and those which have previously demonstrated their ability to drive innovative change. The companies are evaluated in 3 key areas:
- Efforts to offer economy-wide technological climate solutions that contribute to global greenhouse gas reductions.
- Initiatives to reduce their own global warming emissions.
- Active engagement in political advocacy and support for science based climate and energy policies.
The list speaks volumes of the efforts by some companies made in the direction of addressing climate change. Cisco and Ericsson remained the top scorers in the list while Fujitsu and Google occupied the 3rd and 4th places, respectively. Compared to their earlier scores, both IBM and HP improved their tally. Oracle and Wipro were the 2 debutants. Others who shared the limelight were Sony, up 4 places; Microsoft, down 5 places; and SAP, down 4 places.
The rankings lauded Ciscos commitment to building climate solutions such as remote collaboration, connected workplace, connected buildings and telecommute offerings, and demonstration of sound methodology in calculating their potential to cut carbon emissions across other sectors of the economy.
The Greenpeace report further states that companies such as Microsoft, Intel and IBM, and many of the Japanese brands, received a penalty for failing to make a public break from the negative positions of business associations that represent them.
On a like-for-like basis the total scores for climate solutions and energy impact were up, that is on an overall the companies fared better in these 2 aspects, with total scores up 23% and 52%, respectively. But in the category of political advocacy the score fell by 2%.
It was this advocacy aspect that was also the cause of most fluctuations in company scores and changes in rankings. Some of the factors considered during the survey by Greenpeace were:
- Sony Europe joined Google to support the European Unions attempt to establish a target of 30% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2020, while Microsoft, Intel, and IBM received penalty points for being part of Business Europes opposition to the target.
- Google, with support from Cisco and HP, helped to counter Californias Proposition 23 ballot measure, which Greenpeace describes as a failed attempt by oil interests to derail the states landmark global warming law, known as the California Global Warming Solutions Act.
- Fujitsu scored high marks for its presentation of 12 specific climate and clean energy policy recommendations to the Japanese government, which is considering a law to reduce greenhouse gas emission 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. Apparently, the rest of the Japanese IT companies remained silent (and received a negative advocacy penalty) and the IT trade lobby JEITA opposed the draft legislation.
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Talking about their presence in the list, PS Narayan, general manager, sustainability program office, Wipro says, The 3 pillars of Wipros sustainability programits climate solutions portfolio for customers; its internal programs on greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation which combined energy efficiency with investments in clean energy; and its engagement with the government, industry and academia on matters of sustainability policy and directionshave ensured that Wipro grabs a top slot. Operationally we have set a challenging but achievable GHG footprint reduction targetto reduce our GHG footprint per employee by 40% by 2015.
Package Deal
Grabbing a place in the list was not without its set of challenges. In its path to turning a green leaf, Wipro faced the same challenges that organizations normally do such as adequate investments in sustainability, top leadership support, staffing the programs with the right people, etc. For Wipro, its vision of being a part of the sustainability era was what led to committed efforts from all. Commencement of Wipro EcoEnergy, a new division in clean energy is an evidence.
Investments made in sustainability are required to be considered as investments made in the long term and not observe it from the lens of a conventional business lens. In the same manner, even the returns derived need to be considered from multiple perspectives, for example, the intangible value of increased employee awareness of sustainability issues is something that cannot be measured under the bracket of a normal financial lens. Another example of this would be Wipros investment in biodiversity projects for its campuses, where it expect the returns to be a mix of both financial and intangible.
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A sustainability program requires multiple approaches and not all of them may require deep financial investment. While new ventures like Wipro EcoEnergy or the multi-year GHG program will require significant investments, many initiatives like employee engagement program or the campus biodiversity program require minimal incremental investments. Another important factor that needs a word of mention is that most initiatives in resource efficiency, for example green buildings, water treatment plants, etc, demonstrate attractive financial returns and the business case for such investments is very strong, says Narayan.
Green Efforts
To unlock the economic potential of a low carbon economy, the rules of the game must be changed, but that wont happen without a fight. And participating and winning this fight is good for business and will help avoid the biggest ecological crisisclimate change.
IT companies may fear that they will anger business partners, such as utilities and energy producers, if they were to take a bolder stance on energy and climate issues. Additionally, a competitive lack of cooperation across the IT sector may be impeding the emergence of a unified platform of policy support for laws and incentives that can best transform the economy and create a beneficial environment for IT solutions. But the risk of inaction is far greater than that of upsetting commercial relationships or losing a competitive edge. Owing to absence of strong climate and energy policies, there is no long term market for clean technologies.
Road Ahead
Highlighting future plans, Narayan says, We have incubated 15 centers of excellence in critical areas like smart grids, smart metering, carbon management, remote energy management solutions, etc. Our integrated business model combines efficiency, mitigation, and strategic solutions for risks and opportunities arising from climate change and resource intensity. Our Green PC journey has been marked by several milestones, for example, 100% RoHS compliant, Energy Star 5 models, an extensive takeback programmaking us the #1 green company. Our future plans include extending our focus to the supply chain.
Shilpa Shanbhag
shilpas@cybermedia.co.in