Lexmark latest vendor giant to join carbon-neutral race

Print vendor pledges to become ‘fully carbon neutral” by 2035

Lexmark has become the latest vendor to commit to a low-carbon future, setting itself a 2035 deadline to reach carbon neutrality.

Having cut emissions by 62 per cent since 2005, the print specialist says it will "continue to pursue and invest in new programmes" to become "fully carbon neutral" by the middle of the next decade.

Race to zero

Lexmark said its reductions to date have been achieved by lowering energy and new plastics use, re-use of products, recycling, and engineering "durable products that are built to last".

A high-profile announcement from Microsoft last January fired the starter pistol on an intensifying and increasingly heavily populated race to zero among the channel's highest-profile vendors. This groundswell of action comes as CRN prepares to host its inaugural Tech Impact summit and awards on 16 September (which you can register to attend for free here).

This February, IBM committed to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and in June Oracle pledged to power its global operations with 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025. HP Inc, meanwhile, this April set a new goal of reaching net zero emissions across its value chain by 2040.

Also in April, Cisco committed $100m over ten years in a bid to address the climate crisis, meanwhile.

Channel partners - whose own scope 3 emissions often hinge partly on the actions of their vendor allies - have followed suit, with Softcat recently setting itself the goal of reaching a carbon net zero supply chain by 2040.

IT services powerhouse Atos earlier this year brought forward its net zero goal from 2035 to 2028, while QBS Software this summer scored an apparent distribution first by achieving carbon neutrality (with Irish VAD DataSolutions on course to achieve the same by 2022).

Of Lexmark's fleet of devices, 92 per cent of models contain post consumed recycled plastic (PCR) content, with over 80 per cent of those containing over 30 per cent PCR content, the vendor claimed.

It said that 39 per cent of plastic in new Lexmark devices and 37 per cent in new branded cartridges has been reclaimed, with the plan now to "grow these numbers".

"We have led the way on sustainability in our business and for our customers, and we are determined to be carbon neutral by 2035," said Lexmark CEO Allen Waugerman (pictured).

"It is the responsible thing to do for the environment, and it is good for our customers - reducing their costs and helping them meet their own carbon neutrality goals through longer-lasting and lower-energy use devices."