Westcon-Comstor achieves full transition to renewables in the UK

The distributor reveals significant progress towards green goals in its latest annual Responsible Business report

Westcon-Comstor's latest annual Responsible Business report reveals strong progress towards powering all global operations using renewable electricity before the distie’s 2030 deadline.

The Responsible Business report covers Westcon-Comstor’s action across three strategic focus areas during FY24: people, planet, and communities.

It reveals that the distributor has already achieved 42 per cent of its goal of delivering 100 per cent of electricity globally from renewable sources by 2030, a significant increase compared to 2023’s nine per cent number.

Progress was fastest in Europe, with the UK recently becoming the first country in which the New York-based distributor has completed the transition to renewables.

The company started its environmental journey at the end of 2022 with the appointment of Mark McLardie as its head of ESG.

Westcon-Comstor, who is also a signatory of the SBTi's Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign, is one of the first tech distributors to have its science-based emission reduction targets formally validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a global body enabling businesses to set emission-reduction targets in line with the latest climate science.

In 2023, the SBTi validated the company’s commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gases emissions across Scope 1, 2 and 3 by 2050, to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50 per cent before 2030 and absolute Scope 3 emissions by 25 per cent before 2030.

One of the company’s targets was to have 80 per cent of its suppliers having science-based emission reduction targets by 2025.

Ahead of its own goals, Westcon-Comstor has achieved this aim one year ahead of schedule.

When speaking to CRN in July this year, the company already reported good progress despite some struggles in reducing scope one emissions.

"From a scope two perspective, we've been doing very well. This year we're expecting to have delivered a 12 per cent year-on-year reduction,” said McLardie.

"Scope one emissions have been more challenging for us. We have a company car fleet, we're still developing a plan to transition to electric vehicles.”

People and planet

As a company would be nothing without its people, Westcon-Comstor reveals that it has increased training budgets by 13 per cent year-on-year, with around $1m (£770k) invested in employee development programmes globally.

Such programmes demonstrate that the company has kept its word, as it previously recognised that a deep restructuring was necessary to change the business.

"We're under no illusions that having made that commitment to net zero and decarbonisation it's going to require transformative change throughout our entire business. It's not something that we can just manage in isolation,” McLardie told CRN in 2022.

In a move to reassert its commitment to sustainability, Westcon-Comstor has aligned to the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), an independent NPO whose standards have become the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework.

“We’re pleased to have made significant progress in certain areas, for example in transitioning to renewable electricity, but we acknowledge that there is much to do as we look to accelerate progress in pursuit of our ambitious medium and long-term sustainability goals,” said Kevin Brzezinski, chief sustainability officer at Westcon-Comstor.

“As a business we are committed to achieving the targets we have set ourselves and working with channel partners and vendors to create a truly sustainable IT channel.”