Chess reveals carbon neutral goal

VAR implements an internal Green Team

Reseller Chess has set up an internal Green Team to help it become carbon neutral and achieve the ISO14001 environment standard.

David Pollock, chief executive at Chess, told CRN: “Chess has always been good at recycling, but we wanted to take our environmental responsibility to the next level so we recently introduced a Green Team. It consists of six internal staff who look at ways that Chess as a business can reduce its impact on the environment.”

One such way has been switching customers over to web billing.

“We recently launched an online billing portal for our customers,” Pollock said. “We have 10,000 customers and only two still wanted to receive a paper bill. We will save more than three tonnes of paper every year from the switch. I think that in time vendors will want their channel partners to be green and customers will also come to expect it. It will ultimately help us to win more business because it is a differentiator.”

Jon Godfrey, managing director of IT asset management specialist Life Cycle Services, said: “Chess is being very sensible by acting now and will be able to differentiate its offering based on its green credentials. VARs that don’t wake up to their green responsibilities in the medium to long-term will struggle to compete.”

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