'We've avoided greenwashing like the plague': Computacenter on 2040 net zero goal

Computacenter sustainability lead Clare Parry-Jones says UK channel giant confident it can hit new target, and hints it could go further and faster

Computacenter's sustainability lead says she is "confident" the industry giant can hit its ambitious new 2040 net zero target, while accusing some peers of giving customers and investors "happy ears" when it comes to sustainability.

The LSE-listed IT services and solutions powerhouse yesterday unveiled a new target of being net zero across scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2040, trumping its previous aim by ten years.

Helped by a recent record-breaking solar roll out at its Hatfield HQ, Computacenter now generates 73 per cent of its electricity usage from renewables (according to its recent annual sustainability report) and yesterday also announced it has brought forward its goal of being carbon neutral across scope 1 and 2 emissions from 2027 to 2022.

In yesterday's stock exchange announcement, Computacenter stressed that the new targets come on the back of "years of carbon reduction efforts across the business".

"We haven't talked much about it, we've just delivered," said Computacenter's group development director, Mo Siddiqi.

Guarding against green wash

Talking to CRN, Computacenter's UK business enablement director & sustainability lead Clare Parry-Jones echoed this, claiming that the £7bn-revenue-outfit has "avoided greenwashing like the plague".

"Other organisations - predominantly private ones - and not necessarily in the IT sector, have been very bold in terms of going out, and are almost giving investors and employees happy ears. But they haven't thought about the impacts in detail," she said.

"As an organisation we are very pragmatic, and we wanted to make sure we fully understood it, and that we understood scope 3. We signed up to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in March, and we are submitting for validation. They will come back with timelines and areas we can work on, but if you look at the advances we've made on scope 1 and 2, we know we can get there in that period of time we're talking about.

"We've not put 2040 closing our eyes and crossing our fingers and toes. We've put 2040 because we have confidence we can get there. And it may be that we could bring that even further forwards - who knows."

The announcement comes as Parry-Jones joins the judging panel for the CRN Tech Impact Awards, which are designed to spread sustainability best practice in the UK channel. See the judging panel here.

Scope for improvement

Having cut its scope 1 and 2 emissions by 74 per cent between 2021 and 2019, Computacenter is confident of becoming carbon neutral this year with "minimal" usage of carbon offsets.

The reduction was fuelled partly by its installation of solar panels at its Hatfield HQ (pictured below) in 2020 and German head office last October, with plans now afoot to repeat the feat at its US integration centre in Livermore, California. This would potentially generate a further 0.75m kWh of renewable electricity annually, on top of the 1.8m and 1.5m kWh already generated by Hatfield and Kerpen.

The 2040 net zero target also encompasses ‘indirect' scope 3 emissions, including business travel and transportation and the supply chain and product of its technology vendors, however.

"What the vendors are doing is really important," Parry-Jones explained.

"We need to make sure that we've got the built-in carbon, and that we understand that for customers, and that we also understand the in-life carbon. What's the carbon that it uses during its lifetime, and how do we extend the life? What the vendors are doing, and how they're driving that - whether that's forest positive, recycling, making sure that the devices are more maintainable, extending the end of the serviceable life - all factors into how we calculate and use it," she said.

"Between the vendors, the resellers and the customers, there's got to be transparency. It's very complex. But we've got to have transparency and be really clear about how we're measuring it."

£10 travel levy

Covid enabled Computacenter to slash its business travel-related emissions from 5.2 million kg to 0.63 million kg between 2019 and 2021.

Partly in a bid to ensure this figure does not rebound to pre-Covid levels, Computacenter introduced a travel levy for all staff on 1 October 2021, as revealed by CRN. The £10/€12/$14 levy raised around €50,000 during Q4. It will be used to offset the travel element of Computacenter's scope 3 emissions.

The tool Computacenter uses for the levy also enables staff to see the carbon impact of their travel options, Parry-Jones explained.

"We're able to see that and make decisions as individuals. Right now, we're not forcing you to always go for the lowest one, because it might be that the time doesn't work for you. But we're giving you the information to manage it," she explained.