Sustainability


Why sustainability will be even bigger for the channel in 2024


Kevin Wragg, director, environment and quality compliance, UK, TD Synnex, says that sustainability will continue to grow in importance for the channel in 2024.


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ast year was a big year for sustainability in the IT channel and 2024 will be even bigger. Everyone is starting to take a serious interest in the


subject. With good reason. It’s becoming essential to demonstrate that both your business and the products and services that it offers, are making every effort to minimise their carbon impact and can meet the rapidly rising expectations of customers on sustainability. Public sector tenders for new equipment will now


typically include a requirement for a specific ratio of products to be remanufactured or refurbished. In France, this already has to be at least 20% of the total. Where the public sector goes, corporates will follow and in time, so will mid-sized and smaller businesses and this will certainly be the case with sustainability.


Essential data In our experience, bids for larger and smaller projects increasingly have a higher weighting towards environment, social and governance (ESG). Two years ago, we might have expected to have been around 5% – in 2024, it’s not unusual for it to be 25% or more of the scoring for some contracts. To have any chance of winning, partners will need to have a clear carbon reduction strategy and plan in place. Tere are also more regulations coming into play. Te EU’s


Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), for example, mandates organisations to report on and provide mitigation for the impact of their operations and supply chain. It comes into force this year. If you sell to or operate in the EU, you will need to conform to this legislation. A similar directive is sure to be enforced in the UK at some point – and I’d predict this will be sooner rather than later.


Demonstrable reduction All these factors make it imperative for every reseller business and channel company to demonstrate what they are doing to reduce their emissions and move towards net zero. Tey will need to show that their supply chain is as carbon efficient and sustainable as possible. Customers will also want to know how hardware products are made, packed and transported, what rare earth minerals have been used in


36 | January/February 2024


components, and how much of the casing is made from recycled material. Tey will want to see minimal or zero use of plastic in packaging and to know that everything – including the product itself – is recyclable and will never end up in landfill. Collecting and collating all this information and


then keeping it up to date is going to be a challenge. But our industry is already starting to bring it all together. Vendors are working to reduce consumption in their


manufacturing processes and the products themselves. Distributors are working with delivery partners to minimise the impact of physically getting the products from A to B. In fact, one year ago we launched our Sustainable Transportation and Logistics Tower of Specialization, as part of our Corporate Citizenship Programme, and formed a working group with all relevant internal stakeholders participating. In this new environment, in which partners will need to provide


detailed information to customers on every aspect of the solution and the supply chain, data is going to be absolutely vital. I believe AI is going to play a key role in helping channel businesses assess their carbon impact position, track KPIs and pull together, analyse, and present data.


Getting started As a starting point, partners need to understand where they are today on emissions and set out a coherent and meaningful plan to becoming more carbon efficient. We’ve also been working with partners and vendors to help them


understand what they will need to do in order to achieve net zero emissions and meet their customers’ expectations on sustainability. Over the last 12 months, I have met and presented to over 750 resellers, partners and vendors on sustainability. I fully expect to be even busier in the coming year. In addition, we recently started offering Net Zero Academy courses to help partners understand exactly where they are today and how to get their sustainability journey underway. Getting started is perhaps the hardest and most important step. One we’d suggest all channel companies need to take very soon.


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