TD Synnex is committed to slashing its absolute Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 90% under targets newly approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
The world’s largest distributor this morning announced it has had its near- and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets approved by the charity, whose partners include the WWF, CDP and UN.
TD Synnex stressed it is “one of the first technology solutions aggregators to achieve this approval”.
Under its near-term targets, TD Synnex has committed to reducing its absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 42% by 2030 (from a 2022 base year). Regarding Scope 3, by 2028, the distributor has committed that 90% of its suppliers by spend and 58% of its customers by revenue will have science-based targets in place.
Under its long-term targets, TD Synnex has committed to slashing its Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 90% by 2045 (from a 2022 base year), meanwhile.
Zooming toward net zero
According to Canalys, as of January 2024, 150 channel partners had near-term SBTi targets in place.
Softcat and Computacenter were among the first IT solutions providers out the gate, gaining approval from SBTi in July 2022 and July 2023, respectively. Since then, both their CEOs have spoken candidly about the difficulties involved with actually hitting these targets (see here and here).
Westcon appeared to be the first major global distributor to have its SBTi goals approved in October, meanwhile.
Progress hasn’t all been in one direction, however, with Microsoft among a raft of companies to have its net zero target removed from the SBTi’s website in March (see Microsoft’s statement on this here). Microsoft’s emissions have risen by 30% since 2020 due to indirect emissions from the construction of datacentres, it emerged in its Annual Sustainability Report last week.
Any vendor backsliding could, of course, have an impact on the Scope 3 emissions of the channel partners who sell and service their technology.
“I was privileged to sign our commitment to the SBTi Business Ambition Pledge as one of my first acts as CEO of TD Synnex following the merger that created our company in September 2021, so it’s safe to say sustainability has been a priority for our business from Day 1,” TD Synnex CEO Rich Hume said.
“I thank all the co-workers involved in building our roadmap to achieving these goals. The approval by SBTi is a testament to their hard work and commitment.”
The news follows the publication of IT Channel Oxygen’s Race to Zero report, which analyses the reported emissions of 42 top UK resellers and MSPs, and zooms in on what each is doing to tackle them.
