Resellers have revealed that they are increasingly being asked to provide environmental credentials on tenders, but requests for greener IT products from end-users appear to be less forthcoming, despite vendors ramping up development.
Robin Barker, director at reseller Blueloop, told CRN: “All the tenders we respond to now consider environmental aspects. We also have our own green policy. Organisations – particularly government – expect resellers to be environmentally friendly, but I’ve not seen one tender yet that’s actually asked for green products.”
Nick King, chief executive of VAR Apex, said: “Environmental concerns are always a prominent part of any tender. Outside of tenders, a key thing customers want is to reduce their power consumption. Not only is it a green issue, but it is also a way to reduce costs. This is one reason for businesses to refresh their IT infrastructure with more modern power-saving devices.”
Computacenter (CC) launched a range of green services at the start of the year (CRN, 29 January). It has noticed an increase in interest for certain services.
Heidi-Lynn Mitchell, product services director at CC’s hardware business unit, said: “Customers are certainly more interested in the energy consumption elements of products. We work with them to assess the environmental credentials of different products. There is also interest from businesses in understanding the green roadmap of their whole IT estate. We offer a power audit of desktops and laptops, which is designed to be straightforward and easy to turn around pretty quickly.”
Mitchell said that the audit highlights ways for businesses to lower their power consumption.
“We can do the audit and implement changes within two to three weeks,” she said. “We are also seeing considerable interest from customers that want to make sure the product is disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.”
Mitchell claimed that demand for these types of green services will increase from businesses because the government is driving the green agenda heavily at the moment and because companies are starting to realise the impact their IT estates are having on the environment.
“We have designed our advisory services to help businesses realise what that impact is and what they can do about reducing it,” she added.
George O’Connor, research analyst at stockbroker Panmure Gordon, said: “The green issue is coming over the hill. We’re not there yet, but CC is ahead of the pack with its offerings.”
Printer vendor Kyocera has been pushing the green message for a number of years and is keen to encourage more resellers to do the same. Kyocera has devised a list of ways that VARs can ‘sell green’ to their customers.
Tracey Rawling Church, head of marketing at Kyocera, told CRN: “Being green has always been one of our core messages to our resellers. We are noticing that VARs are picking up on the green message a bit more. Our Ecosys technology was launched in 1992 and ever since then our products have always been environmentally friendly.”
A recent Kyocera investigation revealed that an average toner cartridge contains about 60 separately milled components, while Kyocera’s Ecosys cartridges are made up of just four parts. This allows businesses to “dramatically reduce their waste instantly”, the vendor has claimed.
“While we don’t sell direct, we do engage directly with end-users on pre-sales enquiries,” Rawling Church said. “And the number of tenders that include an environmental section, as well as the level of detail required, has increased, both in the public sector and from large corporates.”
Storage and networking distributor Zycko recently launched a group-wide policy to reduce power consumption. It claimed that it will save at least £10,070 per annum by ensuring its desktop computers are turned off overnight and at weekends.
David Galton Fenzi, group sales director at distributor Zycko, said: “By following in Zycko’s footsteps, resellers can benefit both environmentally and financially.”
Asked if he felt end-users were asking for greener IT products, Galton Fenzi said: “I think we are at the tip of the ice-berg. We have closed some business purely based on environmental features of products, such as new water-cooled racks. I think people are realising that IT is a major user of power.”
However, Martin Prescott, managing director of Red PC Services, and a local councillor, said: “The government is willing to charge huge amounts of tax on anything that isn’t green. I’ve had no reports from my staff of any customers asking for greener IT products or services. Of course if people start requesting it, we will jump on the bandwagon.”
