‘Our focus is around device recovery’: Computacenter on sustainability goals
The reseller reinforces its green targets commitment despite macroeconomic conditions
Computacenter considers itself “a sustainable organisation”, having already achieved on its Scope 1 and Scope 2 targets, all while maintaining its focus on solar power and other green energy sources.
To understand the reseller’s sustainable ambitions, CRN met with Clare Parry-Jones, its sales enablement director Europe, and Julian Wase, circular services director, during The Channel Company’s Sustainability in Tech Summit in London last week.
Circular economy and carbon neutrality
The company is currently focused “around device recovery,” says Wase.
“It won’t just be a trend for 2025, this is a long-term focus for us.
“We set an individual target on the number of devices that we recover, but as an aspiration, we want that to be on one on one.
“In 2024, we did just under 900,000 recoveries.”
Parry-Jones adds that the company wants to help customers “in terms of managing that circularity.”
Computacenter previously proved successful in its sustainable ambitions, as the organisation has been “carbon neutral in its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions since 2022”, according to Wase.
To reach this goal, the circular services director tells CRN that the company “invested a lot in solar,” with the installations of solar arrays in Germany, California, the Netherlands, and in Hatfield, UK, where the reseller is headquartered.
“We source green power wherever we can, rather than fossil fuel power.”
“And we have been keeping it that way,” adds Parry-Jones.
“We as a group have been sourcing around 75 per cent of our power from green electricity.”
The solution provider has already achieved the feat of sourcing “100 per cent” of its power in the UK and Germany, at least in all its own facilities.
“We don't own all the buildings that we operate out of, and very often the utility contracts are owned by the building operator, not by us.”
Keep reading to find out how Computacenter is responding to changing regulations and collaborating with industry partners...
Rules change, the sustainability objective remains
No company is an island, Computacenter being no exception. It needs to adapt to an everchanging world, with regulations constantly redefining the rules of the channel.
Parry-Jones identifies the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due diligence directive (CSDDD), as “consuming”, because of “the volume of data, the way we've got to capture it, the entities that qualify for it, the spirit of how it will be captured with our customers.”
“It’s a huge programme of work, and we're taking external support and advice on it.
“We are experts as an IT services and solutions organisation, but we are now expected to be experts in managing the sustainability data mountain and how we transparently share that report with our customers.”
Wase adds that with new legislation set to take place in some European countries next year and in the UK in 2027, “there's a lot of work going in understanding the taxonomy, and how we're going to record it.”
“And that's not just for us, our customers are going to demand it.
“We deal with the biggest customers in the world, so we have to be ready for them.
But the channel and global sustainability can also be impacted by macroeconomic conditions, such as the re-election of Donald Trump as president of the US.
For Parry-Jones, Computacenter is not going to be affected by such changes.
“We’re not swayed by the politics in the geographies in which we operate,” she says.
“We're mindful and respectful of them, but we've got a business to run, and we'll do the best things for our company.
“We will continue to pragmatically approach everything in that space in the same way that we've always done.
“We know what's important to our stakeholders, both internal and external, and that drives our bottom-line approach.
“Trump can decide what he wants, we as an organisation have to extricate ourselves from politics when we're able to because that's not the business that we're in.
“Politicians, presidents, prime ministers come and go.
“Mike Norris has been CEO of Computacenter for 30 years.”
Channel efforts
In its mission to ‘green’ the channel, the British reseller is not alone, as the European sales enablement director identifies different strides made by partners recently.
“Collectively, our reporting has gone better.
“The challenge today is around the logistics and manoeuvring, because 90 per cent of what the channel does is physical.
“And there is a cost, whether it’s a sea container or an air freight, and then once it's landed, where do you take it from?
“At Computacenter, we’ll look at exactly where it needs to land to get to the customer.
“As an example, a product might be sold by a UK account team, but to a customer that has got operations in mainland Europe.
“We'll get the products into mainland Europe directly from the vendor and move it from there.
“We're all about doing the least number of miles.
“When I talk to other peers, I know and believe that they have a similar mindset.
“They might not have the scale that we've got and the ability to do that, but I know that they're thinking about it.”