Technology Reseller v49

technologyreseller.co.uk 45 SUSTAINABILITY Sustainability prioritised by IT decision-makers says Quocirca net-zero goals of their own. Our research found that reducing environmental impact will be the top priority for businesses by 2025, eclipsing customer experience and cybersecurity concerns. A priority for customers must also be a priority for the industry and we expect to see vendors focusing heavily on sustainability as they position themselves as valuable partners on the journey to net-zero.” Other key findings in the report include: n 36% of ITDMs say reducing environmental impact is a priority for their organisation now; 40% say it will be a priority in 2025. n 74% of ITDMs say that their companies have set net-zero goals, 60% of which are due by 2030, 31% by 2040 and 8% by 2050. n 28% of organisations have fully implemented a sustainability strategy. A further 43% have a strategy that is not yet fully implemented. n 41% consider sustainability to be extremely important to business performance now; this will rise to 68% by 2025. n 50% say their company’s net-zero goal influences print supplier selection to a great extent; a further 40% say it influences choices to a moderate extent. n 71% of ITDMs say their company plans to reduce paper consumption by at least 30% by 2025. n 70% are already recycling paper, 58% are implementing digital signatures and 52% are adopting digital workflows to avoid printing. Quocirca’s analysis suggests that the focus on sustainability is sharper in small businesses. One third (36%) of small organisations have a fully implemented sustainability strategy, compared to 20% of large companies, and 47% of small businesses state that sustainability is important to business performance now, compared to only 36% of large organisations. Similarly, 95% of smaller organisations say that their net-zero goal influences supplier selection to a great or moderate extent, compared to 82% of larger businesses. The research also found that respondents under the age of 35 are more likely to be working for organisations that have net-zero goals in place and are also more likely than older respondents to say that net-zero considerations influence their choice of supplier. www.quocirca.com IT decision-makers (ITDMs) in UK and US businesses with more than 500 employees are prioritising sustainability as they aim to deliver operational efficiencies, meet regulatory standards and satisfy customer expectations, reveals Quocirca’s Sustainability Trends Report 2022. In addition to initiatives on paper reduction, hardware recycling and the adoption of digital workflows, nine out of 10 of the 212 ITDMs questioned said that their supplier selection was being influenced by their net-zero goals. In this context, 84% of ITDMs say that seeing providers offer sustainable products and services is currently the most important consideration. However, by 2025, ITDMs believe it will be more important for vendors to demonstrate that they have taken steps to reduce their own environmental impact in areas such as manufacturing, distribution and end-of-life strategies. Quocirca advises the IT and print industries to continue to focus on reducing emissions and transforming operations in order to drive competitive advantage in the sustainability sphere. Research Director Louella Fernandes said: “Businesses recognise that a considerable proportion of their environmental impact resides in their supply chain. To reduce it they need suppliers to minimise the whole lifecycle impact of products and be achieving No turning back Louella Fernandes Circular IT provider Stone Group has saved over half a million items of unwanted tech hardware from going to landfill thanks to the Stone 360 app. Created to help organisations arrange for the disposal of unwanted IT assets, the app has been downloaded by 11,000 businesses across the UK and is regularly used by 3,000 organisations with a combined workforce of over 4 million. Stone Group is shortly to introduce a new version that helps users meet electronic waste disposal rules by classifying any items that contain hazardous substances or persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and by identifying those that can be successfully refurbished. Any used monitors, laptops, desktops, printers, servers or other items that can’t be refurbished are broken down to their core components and recycled, ensuring nothing ends up in landfill. Organisations using the Stone 360 app receive a rebate for any items that can be salvaged, which they can cash in or boost by 20% when procuring new or refurbished IT hardware from Stone. From this month onwards, Stone’s IT asset disposal (ITAD) facility in Staffordshire will operate 24x7 to keep up with demand for its recycling services.

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