Legislation, partnership and balancing urgency with pragmatism: The big takeaways from CRN Sustainability in Tech

As a challenging economy threatens to push sustainability down the agenda, channel leaders gathered to discuss pragmatic solutions

Over 120 IT leaders gathered at London's BAFTA venue on Thursday to tackle the big sustainability questions facing the channel.

The full day of sessions covered sustainable legislation, industry collaboration, balancing urgent climate concerns with business needs, the circular economy and much more.

CRN has the highlights.

From acronyms to action

The day kicked off with an informative session by Stephen Finnegan, managing director of Arete Zero Carbon, discussing the impact of UK, EU and US regulations on resellers, MSPs and the channel.

Finnegan highlighted that this is a key year for sustainability, with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) enforcing that every business, independent of size, operating in and through the EU will be required to consider their carbon impact and create a decarbonisation roadmap.

Giving a popular consumer product - Apple's AirPods - as an example, Finnegan highlighted the massive impact on emissions that Scope 3 or supply chain emissions have on the overall carbon output of a product. In the case of airpods, Finnegan said, supply chain emissions make up around 70 per cent of the total footprint, with Apple pledging to significantly reduce these numbers.

"When it comes to reducing supply chain emissions," Finnegan said. "You have two options - to enforce or to support."

Highlighting the benefits and limitations of each approach, he highlighted that regardless of the approach and the legislative frameworks that IT firms choose to follow, "we are all on this journey together."

"I know that the legislative frameworks will get tighter and if you're not acting on this, there will be some huge surprises around the corner."

Closing out, Finnegan highlighted the immediate and longer-term impact of the Energy Saving Opportunities Scheme (ESOS), Annual Standardised Reporting Directive (SECR), the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Taskforce on climate financial disclosures (TCFD) as frameworks that channel firms should be complying with as of 2024.

Collaboration as a catalyst

A fireside chat between Virginie Le Barbu, global sustainability director at Lenovo and Richard Beaumont, founder of procurement training firm Eruditic, highlighted the crucial role of collaboration and ecosystem responsibility in driving the shift towards more sustainable business models.

"Sustainability, like innovation, is something that has been talked about and everyone knows it's a good thing to do. But when you look at how companies are doing, it's a bit like looking at a very jagged mountain range. There are some companies who have got it nailed across innovation, quality and sustainability. They've introduced a culture of openness and sharing, Beaumont noted.

"But there are many, many more who are in the deepest dark valley - very traditional, not sharing, almost a master-servant customer supplier relationship. There's still that expectation that ecosystem sustainability boils down to your supplier filling out a report."

Beaumont noted that sectors are doing better than others, highlighting automation as a bright spot - one sector which inherently relies on close partner and supplier relationships and has adopted this mindset around supply chain emissions.

Discussing the biggest enablers to collaboration, Le Barbu said: "The first one that comes to mind is mindset. You need to have the right mindset. This means transformation and a transition to a new style of leadership. And we do see that the transformation is happening, slowly, but things are heading in the right direction.

"When thinking about collaboration, you need to have a clear view of where you're going, and you need to ensure your collaborators align with this view.

"You also need to build a very strong communication plan. Transparency is really important in building this collaboration."

Balancing environmental urgency with business pragmatism

The spectre of a challenging financial year was not absent from the conference. In a fireside chat with consulting editor, Sara Yirrell, Jigsaw24 CEO, Roger Whittle, addressed it head on, stating that while the transition away from fossil fuels needs to be gradual, it is, at this point in the climate crisis, inevitable.

The IT channel, Whittle maintained, faces the moral and business imperative to play an active part in the shift.

"The cost of borrowing money for most organisations in Britain has more than quadrupled in less than 15 months. So it was not a shock that the increase in the cost of money in such a short amount of time, produced a shock."

"I noticed to my increasing horror last year that sustainability dropped down the agenda. These conversations have been had up and down the country this year, Whittle said.

Whittle highlighted the level of the climate emergency, but pointed to practical steps that companies have taken and Jigsaw is currently taking to rapidly reduce emissions and move to a carbon-free business.

"This is an opportunity for business efficiency. If we do sustainability properly, it can reduce costs. I believe it is possible today to put your electricity usage out to tender and find a sustainable supplier at a lower price than you've been paying.

"The second opportunity is morale - sustainability is a big boost to talent attraction and retention. I think there's a huge amount we can do with our colleagues to make them feel better and give them a sense of purpose by working on sustainability.

"And thirdly, there is an opportunity to reach out to customers and partners."