Concern about green IT products falls

IT buyers are less interested and concerned in purchasing environmentally-friendly IT than they were 14 years ago, according to a new survey.

The study by document imaging firm Kyocera found that UK firms are less likely to pay more for green products, select suppliers based on sustainability or to have an environmental policy than they were in 1993, when the survey was last carried out.

"I'm horrified that the will to act has reduced significance. It's not what I would have expected, given the current urgency around climate change," said Kyocera's marketing director Tracey Rawling Church. "The time to act is now, but the will to act is reduced."

The study found that the number of companies willing to pay a modest premium for environmentally-sound products fell from 60 per cent in 1993 to 31 per cent this year. "In 1993, we concluded that UK PLC was too mean to be green," Rawling Church said. "That view has become more deeply entrenched in the last 14 years."

Those results match with another study reported last month by IT PRO, which showed that the UK was hesitant to go green because of the cost.

While recycling office IT - such as printer toner cartridges, computers and hardware - has jumped 100 per cent since the last study, just 23 per cent of the hundreds of c-level executives, buyers and IT users surveyed said their firm uses environmentally-conscious suppliers. And the number of people who said their firm scrutinises suppliers for "environmental credibility" plummeted from 54 per cent in 1993 to just 20 per cent in 2007.

The study also found that the number of organisations with an environmental office policy fell from 54 per cent in 1993 to 41 per cent this year.

Tighter regulations could be one reason companies don't feel the need to have an environmental policy, however, as firms choose to follow the increasing number of government guidelines rather than create their own.

Accreditation schemes, such as those found in the US and Germany, could be the way forward. But Rawling Church said Kyocera has faced problems with some home-grown schemes. One gave the firm a lower rating than expected. When Kyocera challenged the result, the auditors said the easiest way to improve the rating was to buy into their membership - an automatic way to get a better score.

"People are persuaded by these accreditation schemes, so people make misguided choices believing they're doing the right thing," she said.

It's harder now than in 1993 to know if a supplier really is green. It's much more complicated now than just recycling paper and turning off computers at the end of the day, Rawling Church said. Now, firms must consider energy efficiency, end-of-life disposal, product transportation and the safety of manufacturing materials in their purchasing decisions. "These days, there are many more issues to consider," said Rawling Church. "There seems to be uncertainty as to how to act, so some don't do anything."

In the last study, buyers were more engaged with choosing environmentally-friendly IT products for their company. In 1993, 86 per cent said they were personally concerned with the green factor when buying IT equipment. This year, that fell to 78 per cent. The number of executives concerned about green buying practices fell from 85 per cent to 62 per cent.

While environmental issues are more complex than they were 14 years ago, it's often easier to find products and equipment with environmental features, according to Rawling Church. "You no longer need to find a niche supplier if you want a sustainable product," she said.

Indeed, with so many IT products featuring green aspects, it's no longer a significant point of differentiation between suppliers. "That's still true in the printer market, but in the rest of the IT industry, the ability to differentiate your product on sustainability has peaked," said Rawling Church.

Because of the green push, many suppliers market their products by focusing on one green aspect and ignoring potential downsides, leaving it to buyers to discover for themselves which products are really energy efficient or sustainable. "Some suppliers realise their technology isn't that environmental, but finds one small corner and claims it's a panacea when it's not," said Rawling Church.

Email to a friend

Print this page

Social Bookmark this article: What is this?

Digg

Delicious

Reddit

StumbleUpon

Slashdot

Google

Facebook