Probrand urges vendors to cut green wash

The government’s Climate Change Bill is due to be given Royal ascent, but businesses are in need of clearer information on which products are genuinely green, VAR Probrand has asserted.

The Climate Change Bill legally requires CO2 reductions of 32 per cent by 2020 and a 60 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050.

Probrand said it recognises that vendors are investing in green initiatives, such as energy-saving servers, recycling programmes and data centre power cooling solutions, but is urging them to cut the green wash.

Research from market watcher Forrester suggests only 15 per cent of IT professionals have a high level of awareness of IT vendors’ green initiatives and solutions.

Stephen Bushell, Probrand director of marketing, said: “There needs to be more sharing and collaboration of green data without it getting lost in translation – customers should be considering the depth of their supply chain.

“Give us the data and, with the procurement team, we will streamline the technology and deliver the data back to the end user in a simpler format.”

Jon Collins, managing director of analyst Freeform Dynamics, said: “It is great that a channel player is tasking vendors over green issues and not just taking their products out to the community.

“IT should be able to automate – more tenders are beginning to include a green element in them.”