Data Solutions aiming to be first carbon-neutral distributor
Distributor urges channel to 'lead from the front' on sustainability as it sets target of becoming carbon-neutral by 2022
Data Solutions claims it is on course to become carbon-neutral by next year in an apparent distribution first.
The Citrix, Check Point and HPE Aruba distributor turns over €75m and employs 30 staff in its native Ireland and the UK.
It recently launched an industry campaign - Techies Go Green - which aims to build awareness and encourage action around sustainability in the channel. It already has 20 signatories, and aims to have 100 on board by the end of June.
Talking to CRN, Data Solutions group managing director Michael O'Hara urged the channel to "lead from the front" on sustainability to avoid a situation where its hand is forced.
Data Solutions has itself formerly committed to halving its carbon footprint by 2030 in line with the criteria of international organisation SBTi. More informally, it wants to go much further than this and become carbon-neutral by 2022.
"We want to be the first distributor to achieve that status," O'Hara said, stressing that he couldn't be absolutely certain other distributors haven't already achieved this.
Carbon neutrality encompasses the so-called ‘Scope 1' and ‘Scope 2' emissions that are broadly under a company's control, rather than the ‘Scope 3' emissions generated by its supply chain.
It is relatively straighforward for services companies to make inroads on Scope 1 and 2 emissions quickly, O'Hara stressed.
Over the last 12 months, Data Solutions itself has switched to a more efficient electrical heat pump heating system, ported its corporate applications to the cloud, changed all office lighting to LEDs, installed electrical charging points (and by 2022 all its company vehicles will be electrical) and moved to a renewable electricity provider.
The first step Data Solutions took, however, was to measure its carbon footprint.
"We say ‘what gets measured gets managed," O'Hara explained.
Techies Go Green lists eight steps a business can take to reduce its CO2 emissions, the final one being carbon offsetting, which O'Hara said should not be seen as "an easy way out".
'Don't wait to be pressured'
Having launched earlier this month, Techies Go Green currently has 20 signatories, with the goal being to build awareness and encourage action across the industry.
"As a distributor, we're ideally positioned to go up to the vendors and down to the channel and even end users. But outside that it's open to the likes recruitment companies or accountants and solicitors who work within the IT industry. Everybody needs to play their part," O'Hara explained.
O'Hara urged distributors and resellers to act now before the big vendors force their hand as they look to dramatically cut emissions across their supply chains.
Salesforce (CEO Marc Bienoff, picture right) has already announced a commitment to by 2024 working with suppliers responsible for 60 per cent of its total Scope 3 emissions to set their own emissions reduction targets.
"[The big vendors] want to go carbon zero, and to do that, yes, they need to take out emissions from their own operations, but ideally they need everyone in their supply chain to be carbon zero. If Salesforce are doing that now, I can only imagine the likes of Microsoft and Cisco and the other guys are going to be putting pressure on the rest of the channel to follow suit. Techies Go Green is about leading from the front and not waiting to be pressured to do that."
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