‘Be overly sincere, objective and specific in your actions ‘
Dave Stevinson, CEO, QBS Technology Group
To what extent does the tech sector have an issue with greenwashing?
I would say it is very rare and the topic greenwashing is actually quite subjective. From my experience everything I have seen which I considered greenwashing so far has come from a lack of knowledge opposed to anything malicious. A fellow B Corp member once explained to me that they quite like greenwashers as they at least have an intention of moving in the right direction and rank them higher than those who are simply doing nothing.
What are the dos and don’ts for IT providers looking to publicise their sustainability efforts in a responsible way?
Be overly sincere, objective and specific in your actions. Use a framework which resonates with your business like PAS2060, or the new one from the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)—IFRS S1 and IFRS S2—The Standards will help to improve trust and confidence in company disclosures about sustainability on an international scale. At QBS we also subscribe to the CDP and SBTi which we find are relevant to us and our extended customer base.
How should vendors and partners approach the increasingly thorny issue of offsetting, either when it comes to decarbonising their own businesses, or tools they have designed or are selling to help customers do the same?
Offsetting is not permission to pollute. Yet it is bordering on impossible to be zero carbon consumption so a level of carbon neutralisation (offsetting) is necessary in 2023. But we are morally against purchasing carbon credits in order to offset our failure to take the correct action ourselves. We are also cognisant that we have so far failed to eliminate all GHG producing activities – thus any offsetting we undertake will be from the most reputable and accredited certification bodies in line with the QBS Offset Strategy to include only offsets which meet the VCS (Voluntary Carbon Standard) and GS (Gold Standard).
Remember the best carbon is the carbon you don’t use.
“Avoid promoting instances where the business reduced its emissions by offsetting; that is not acceptable anymore” – Find out DataSolutions’ CEO Michael O’Hara’s views on next page…
