The Channel's Race To Zero Gathers Pace

This article appeared in the Channel Race to Zero report, which can be downloaded here (brief registration process required)

The race to decarbonise has become one of the most important challenges of our time, and even more for the IT and technology sectors.

Where once, sustainability considerations were a ‘nice to have’, now, the environmental credentials of small, medium, and large-scale business alike are heavily scrutinised, and a company’s green commitments can be make or break – playing an integral role in both customers’ purchasing decisions, and its vendor selection criteria.

Over the last three years we at Schneider Electric have seen many of the world’s leading resellers, distributors and IT solutions providers publicly share commitments to reduce their environmental footprint – with many developing new services and solutions to help their customers minimise the impact of energy, emissions, and waste.

The 2024 annual Global Sustainable Ecosystems Survey led by channel analyst Canalys, for example, found 50% of partners expect to generate revenue from sustainability solutions this year, while a further 59% state that customers’ own goals are the top driver behind their continued interest in sustainable IT.

From energy efficiency and IT modernisation programmes to renewable energy procurement, sustainability software and managed services, technology now offers businesses one of the fastest ways to decarbonise, and across every part of our ecosystem, we now have a key opportunity to embrace it.

The trend of managing upstream and downstream emissions is also gathering pace, and more organisations are placing pressure on their partners and suppliers to address the impact of Scope 3. For many of those making sustainable progress, the next key challenge will be in how they will save or avoid the CO2 emissions beyond their control, ensuring that each and every one of their supply chain partners is aligned with their company mission.

At Schneider Electric, a key part of our sustainability strategy is to help our customers save and avoid 800 million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2025. Since that target was set, we’ve helped them reduce 576M tonnes of CO2 and are over halfway towards our target of helping our top 1000 suppliers reduce 50% of their emissions.

In some respects, the channel is a large vessel, and it may take time to turn, but the more we focus on driving progress as a community, the more progress we will make. As an ecosystem we also have the unique ability to collaborate and lean into our differing areas of expertise – fast closing any potential skills gaps in the race to make a net zero channel a reality.

This first edition of the IT Channel Oxygen Race to Zero report demonstrates just how far the channel has come on its sustainability journey, but there is still much work to do, and in many respects, we are only at the tip of the iceberg. Progress, however large or small, is still progress, and the more that we can do as a community – be it the reduction of energy, single-use plastics, or the adoption of renewables – the more those ecosystem gains will compound over time.

As the world leader in energy management and automation, our mission at Schneider Electric is to be our customers partner for sustainability and efficiency, and it remains central to everything that we do.

For me personally, that mission should be predicated on one thing; being responsible with our decisions to ensure the world is left in the best possible condition for future generations our children, and our children’s children – and to ensure that we continue to push the boundaries of sustainability.