Green on the Rise

Greenpeace released a new report on electronic waste (e-waste) this week demonstrating that a significant portion of the developed world's hazardous materials still end up at developing nations. Elsewhere, Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) and Dell Inc. released details of their own business improvements towards reducing carbon emissions.

Focal Points:

• Greenpeace has previously focused its attention on the large amounts of e-waste flowing from developed nations to India and China. A new report turns to the African nation of Ghana, where similar forms of toxic arbitrage are taking place. The report details how old equipment including cellular phones, computers, and television sets are sent to Ghana under the false label of "second-hand goods" and then placed in landfills by unprotected workers including children. Chemicals are leeching into soil tainting drinking water. Greenpeace is pressuring those electronics firms to reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous materials in their products and introduce takeback campaigns. A new resolution introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this week aims to ban the export of toxic waste to developing nations, though the practice has already been outlawed under other legislation.
• HP declared that all its business PC, printing, and server products shipped in the United States and Canada comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new SmartWay labeling initiative. SmartWay aims to reduce the fuel consumption and hazardous emissions from ground-based transportation in a cooperative initiative with the freight industry. The program has set goals of lowering carbon dioxide emissions by 33 million to 66 million tons and nitrogen oxide by 200,000 tons annually by 2012. The intended fuel savings should require 150 million fewer barrels of oil per year, which is a similar offset to removing 12 million cars. HP says that all business desktop, monitors, notebooks, servers, storage, thin clients, printing devices, and workstations are now shipped using SmartWay-compliant partners. The company is reportedly the first technology vendor to achieve this measure.
• Dell had previously set a goal to reach carbon neutrality in its business operations by the end of this year, and has now announced the achievement of that objective four months early. Approximately 20 percent of Dell's total energy requirements are met using renewable sources including wind, solar, and methane gas. The rest of the energy is acquired from more traditional sources, though the company has purchased credits to subsidize their carbon emissions. Dell claims that use of more energy efficient operations including air conditioning and heating, lighting, and the use of standby states for PC and printing technologies saves the company $3 million per year, which is five percent of its energy bill. In an unrelated survey, recent findings show that only 34 percent of enterprise and midsized business respondents consider energy efficiency a "very important factor" in new equipment purchases. Additionally, only 38 percent of survey participants reported using the power management tools available to them in their Energy Star certified PCs.

Experton Group believes all enterprise IT and executives will be increasingly held accountable for their environmental practices, particularly as corporate social responsibility (CSR) organizations and reporting requirements become a factor of importance for corporate stakeholders. Vendor claims about the design, employee treatment, elimination of hazardous materials, manufacturing operations, shipping practices, and end-of-life treatment must have proper due diligence performed to ensure that the corporation is meeting its own internal goals required and those desired by Wall Street. Current U.S. practices in ensuring environmental standards are met still lag significantly behind Europe, where individual criteria have specific measurable requirements that are used in both the request for proposal (RFP) and contract negotiation process to determine which vendors win business. Additionally, significant cost savings remains untapped as many corporations have failed to adopt simple steps in reducing their energy dependence. IT and corporate executives need to quickly realize that environmental consciousness can deliver bottom line results with minimal effort, and must adopt holistic processes to leverage these gains to remain competitive and beyond scrutiny.