When it comes to sustainability and ESG, 2023 will go down as the year the UK IT solutions providers included in Oxygen 250 increasingly swapped half-baked gestures for a commitment to follow the science.
For one, the world’s largest IT solutions providers one by one fell into line with the Science Based Targets infinitive (SBTi) during the year.
Computacenter had its decarbonisation goals approved by the initiative – which is a collaboration between global bodies such as the United Nations and the CDP – in August. It has committed to slashing its absolute scope 1, 2 emissions by 82.1% and scope 3 emissions by 50.4% by 2032, before achieving a 90% cut across scope 1, 2 and 3 by 2040.
Softcat and Telent achieved the same feat in July 2022 and May 2023, respectively, with others (including Bytes, CDW, SCC, WWT, Bechtle, SoftwareOne and Logicalis) currently going through the SBTi approval process.
IT solutions providers of all sizes are facing a raft of incoming sustainability-related regulations, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Canalys research conducted in December 2023 found that 83% of RFPs now have environmental sustainability criteria built in, up from 75% in 2022, meanwhile.
It is against this backdrop that even some of the smaller firms in this report are committing to SBTi, as well as some of the other more rigorous sustainability-related certifications such as Ecovadis or B Corp.
This includes Digital Space, whose CEO Neil Muller admitted “needed to change to keep our largest customer”. Alongside Celerity and Commercial, it is among the few midmarket and SMB outfits that has had its near-term carbon reduction targets validated by SBTi (using a streamlined route exclusive to SMEs). Transputec has set itself the goal of becoming a validated SBTi member in its fiscal 2024, meanwhile.
Adarma and Inoapps were among those to last year earn Silver Medal status with Ecovadis, a globally recognised sustainability rating provider. Natilik and Cloud Technology Solutions both demonstrated their commitment to balancing profit with purpose by bagging B Corp status at the start of 2023, meanwhile.
Avanade and Creative ITC were among those to appoint dedicated ESG Leads during the year (both in September).
Others have recently set net zero goals “in line with” SBTi guidance or science-based targets. This includes Kubus Group, which harbours ambitions to halve emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050, as well as IDNS.
Decarbonisation dash
Measuring your carbon footprint and committing to action is one thing, but what headway are Oxygen 250 firms actually making when it comes to sustainability and ESG?
The action in 2023 centred largely on tackling directly controlled scope 1 and 2 emissions. This included not only moving to green electricity tariffs, installing heat pumps and HVAC systems, but also rolling out rooftop solar panels.
As of June 2023, Novatech’s 30,000 sq ft Portsmouth HQ achieved net positive status – meaning it produces more energy than it consumes on an annual basis, and doesn’t consume any gas. This follows its completion of the installation of 825 rooftop solar panels in August 2022.
“We were doing a tender and there was a section on our operations and the rating of our building. People are starting to ask questions like this,” CEO David Furby told IT Channel Oxygen in August.
ITPS in October announced that it is looking to reduce its carbon footprint through the installation of 200kW of solar panels at its data centre, before offsetting what remains by working with Forestry England to plant its own woods. Claritas, meanwhile, last year installed solar panels on the roof of its HQ in a project with an expected eight-year RoI. They cover 70% of its power needs when the sun is shining.
Commercial in October added rooftop solar panels to a hybrid delivery van to boost its fuel economy.
But Oxygen 250 firms are also starting to take aim at those scope 3 emissions that lie outside their direct control, namely those that relate to their supply chain, their customers and their staff.
Logicalis rolled out a sustainable travel policy and turned the screw on vendors and customers that do not set net zero goals. ACS, meanwhile, began 2023 with an aim of lowering customer emissions by halving small orders within contracted accounts.
Others are stepping up efforts on recycling and reuse. Focusing on repairability and lengthening the life of customers’ digital assets are among the extra-financial performance initiatives included in Econocom’s new five-year plan, for instance.
Although IT solutions providers must reduce their own emissions, they arguably have an even an greater role to play in using technology to help their customers do the same, whether that is through data and AI, IoT, as-a-service, digitisation, or even carbon measurement. Indeed, in October Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (brushing off concerns about AI’s own carbon footprint) branded AI a “powerful accelerant” in addressing the climate crisis.
Autodesk partner Vinzero is now positioning itself as a “key player” in helping the construction sector decarbonise. OCF, meanwhile, last year developed the ‘Massive GPU Cluster for Earth Observation’ to aid environmental scientists in their pursuit of combining deep learning and environmental research.
