01732 759725 36 OPINION Quocirca’s Future of Work Spotlight on Sustainability 2025 report looks at how IT decision-makers who are responsible for or involved in decisions around the print infrastructure are graduating from hazy ambitions for environmental protection to more concrete goals for sustainability that impact their own actions and shape their expectations of suppliers Sustainability and the future of print improving business efficiency. “While sustainability is clearly climbing the business agenda, it will need to hold its own as a priority in a turbulent corporate climate,” Louella said. Print suppliers aiming to build a case for sustainability must also be mindful of related priorities and ensure they demonstrate how sustainable practices and products can help organisations achieve both their commercial interests and their environmental aspirations. “However, the study offers evidence that these are starting to align, as 71 per cent of respondents believe sustainability will be important to their business by 2025. This is leading businesses to identify and pursue more concrete sustainability goals – such as energy, waste and raw material reduction – so they can demonstrate progress to customers, employees and wider stakeholders,” Louella added. Suppliers need to be sustainability leaders Quocirca’s research shows that senior executives are increasingly likely to be receptive to propositions based around sustainability, as almost half (45 per cent) believe the issue will be extremely important to their business by 2025, meaning MPS providers must work to identify and engage with the key stakeholders on sustainability issues. “Sustainability leaders are defined as those organisations that rate environmental issues as ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important (47 per cent of research respondents). They are exhibiting notably different attitudes to those who deem them only ‘quite’ important (36 per cent), whom we have termed progressives, and to the 16 per cent of beginners who think environmental issues are not important at all,” Louella explained. Interestingly, sustainability leaders are more than twice as likely to say that printed paper is very important to their business, but they are also much more likely to be accelerating digitisation plans, expecting to manage their print environment entirely in the cloud, and believing it likely that workers will mainly communicate through video/AR/ VR technology. “They also have markedly higher expectations for supplier performance across the board, from the ability to optimise print infrastructure for hybrid work to security expertise and cost reductions. Naturally, they also expect their suppliers to be sustainability leaders in their own right,” she added. Support for sustainability initiatives The study also underlines the importance to MPS providers of understanding where their customers are on their sustainability journey and engaging with the right stakeholders – especially at senior level – who are increasingly receptive to products and services that demonstrate strong environmental credentials. Sustainability leaders are particularly interested in the ability of their print supplier to provide MPS, IT managed services and cloud print services, as well as to support them in their sustainability initiatives. “Theoretically at least, this means MPS providers with a strong environmental message should be pushing at an open door if they can make robust proposals for investment in sustainable managed print services,” Louella said. “Overall, sustainability is set to be an increasingly decisive factor in investment choices for businesses of all sizes, meaning MPS providers are advised to ensure they have the solutions and data needed to create credible propositions that deliver measurable environmental benefits,” she concluded. print2025.com/reports/sustainabilityand-the-future-of-print The study, based on the views of 1,021 office workers and 521 IT decisionmakers, finds that sustainability is increasingly viewed as both an important business objective and a key supplier selection criterion. According to Louella Fernandes, Director at Quocirca, a maturing approach to corporate sustainability is driving the creation of more concrete goals and higher expectations of print suppliers. Key findings include: n 71 per cent of respondents say environmental issues and sustainability will be important or extremely important to their business by 2025. n Digital transformation programmes are accelerating in 61 per cent of organisations (rising to 74 per cent in the US), with the biggest motivation being reducing environmental impact. n Two thirds of those polled say that it is extremely or very important for a print supplier to be a leader in sustainability. n 45 per cent of respondents in Director, VP or head of department positions believe environmental issues will be extremely important to the business by 2025. Climbing the business agenda Sustainability leaders are more likely to be accelerating digitisation, adopting fully cloud-based print management and anticipating the use of video/AR/VR technology. Among a series of potential business priorities that ITDMs will focus on over the next three years, companies rated reducing environmental impact lower than issues such as raising revenue, customer acquisition and retention, and Louella Fernandes
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