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Citrix Northern Euro boss: Microsoft's carbon targets are the Ford Model T to the IT industry

Justin Sutton-Parker tells CRN about the competitive advantage that having a green agenda gives partners

Microsoft's ambitious carbon reduction goals are the IT equivalent of when Ford brought the Model T car onto the market in the early 20th century, according to Citrix's director for Northern Europe.

Justin Sutton-Parker is currently completing a PhD in sustainability in the IT industry and credits Citrix and Microsoft for providing help in his studies.

He called the goal by Microsoft to eradicate its entire historical carbon footprint by 2050 "amazing" and said that these are kinds of decisions that should be happening in the wider IT sector.

"A really big company saying, ‘this is the de facto, this is what should be happening' is exciting. This is the Ford Model T equivalent of the way we should move forward. Everyone needs sustainability," he told CRN.

"It's the most exciting thing happening. When I now go to speak to potential government customers about sustainability, I've yet to walk out of a room where someone hasn't said ‘Yes, I'd like to do that immediately'."

Sutton-Parker has become the go-to man in relation to sustainability at Citrix and will be heading its imminent campaign in Northern Europe preaching to partners and customers the benefits to be reaped from establishing a green agenda, breaking down the science to understandable metrics and highlighting Citrix's own green achievements.

"Our pledge in Northern Europe is to go out to 65,000 customers and ask them to adopt the way of working that we're suggesting [remote working three days a week] and they could actually reduce their annual car emissions to the equivalent of about 10,000 cars," he explained of the campaign.

"The point of sustainability is not to affect social, economic and environmental opportunities for future generations. We're asking our customers to help us look at the UN Sustainable Development Goals, work with us to map those into that sustainable future and then deliver that by the way they're working and we put a metric on it."

Partners can take advantage of the self-funding nature of sustainability to give themselves a competitive advantage, Sutton-Parker added.

By offering customers the ability to reduce their datacentre energy consumption or participating in the circular economy, partners can offer them a built-in way to continue their operations and comply with their CSR goals.

"The biggest blocker for most people adopting sustainability is budget," Sutton-Parker explained.

"When you go on a sustainability journey, you're saving money through energy, you're increasing productivity, so the company's actually more profitable and it's almost a self-funding strategy.

"You can say to a customer, ‘we do all the stuff we normally do, but we're also going to look at your carbon footprint, which will help your company reports and show your progress around what you're doing from a CSR and ESG basis - and we could save you x,y and z out of the operational budget on utilities."

Sutton-Parker has been with Citrix for four years and has witnessed a massive sea change in terms of awareness around sustainability among partners in that time.

"When I talked to partners three years ago, they would say, ‘You're ahead of the curve, but this is not really for us because I don't think our customers will take this'. I now get at least 30 contacts a day to go and speak to people about green IT - on top of my day job as director of Northern Europe," he explained, adding that sustainability has also become more central to Citrix's operations with the executive team calling on his knowledge.

"I'm fairly senior, but wouldn't have had any reason to speak to the CEO on most things because it's an unnecessary conversation, but before Christmas I found myself speaking to the CEO about sustainability and the EVs and the SVPs - they get it," he said.

"There is nothing stopping anyone; the groundswell for sustainability is unbelievable."