Probrand calls for green standard

VAR pushes for single universal standard for environmentally sustainable IT

Gary Price: We would like to have another parameter so you can search by green

VAR Probrand is pressing for a universal green IT standard to help users locate environmentally sustainable products quickly and easily.

According to its analysis of 150,000 IT products from 110 manufacturers, just 22 per cent adhere to any official environmental standard.

Proband’s research also high­lighted there is no single sustainability stand­ard, with Nordic Swan, Blue Angel, EPEAT and the UK government’s Quick Wins all battling it out. This has created confusion among users under pressure to buy green IT.

Gary Price, business analyst at Probrand, called on the government and manufacturers to unite and back a universal standard.

“If you are searching for a monitor or notebook on dabs or Amazon, you can search by memory or screen size. Ideally we would like to have another parameter so you can search by green. We have the technology on our www.theITIndex.co.uk portal, but we cannot do it with 22 per cent of data there.”

Price also argued that any future standard should look at the impact of a product’s whole lifecycle. “Most do not cover shipping,” he said.

Probrand is in talks with the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and with the Sustainability Forum about the potential to consolidate current standards.

David Galton-Fenzi, group sales and marketing director at distributor Zycko, said: “Probrand has struck on something here. This would cut through all the rhetoric and spin and help customers understand what they are actually getting.”