Sustainability
NET-ZERO AT YOUR DESK
Paul Butler, Regional Sales Director at Philips Monitors, looks at how businesses can turn big sustainability ambitions into practical action in the digital workplace, from choosing energy-saving displays to making smarter, lower-waste technology decisions.
W
hen IT directors and procurement professionals discuss technology refreshes, the conversation inevitably turns to
sustainability. Not as an aſterthought, but as a core requirement. Organisations have made commitments, stakeholders expect progress, and procurement decisions need to demonstrate environmental value alongside operational efficiency. Te challenge isn’t a lack of commitment. Te
challenge is making that commitment tangible. How do you connect a routine purchasing decision to measurable environmental impact? How do you show employees that their workplace infrastructure contributes to broader climate goals? How do you provide the kind of verified outcomes that satisfy investors, regulators and customers demanding evidence of progress? Te answer lies in fundamentally rethinking what technology procurement can achieve beyond its primary function.
From calculations to real impact Te approach we’ve developed at Philips Monitors through our partnership with ForestNation demonstrates what becomes possible when you connect procurement directly to reforestation. Te mechanism is straightforward: calculate the energy consumption of displays throughout their entire lifecycle (defined as manufacturing, transport, and 5 years of use) using certified data, convert that consumption into a specific CO2 footprint, then plant trees in proportion to that footprint through verified reforestation programmes.
28 | January/February 2026 Te formula is conservative and transparent: each
tree is counted as removing 0.125 tonnes of CO2, working out to approximately 40 trees planted for every tonne of CO2 emitted. For a typical corporate deployment of 100 monitors, that translates to roughly 140 trees planted. Not carbon credits purchased in an offset marketplace, but physical trees grown in nurseries and planted in carefully selected reforestation sites. Tis isn’t theoretical. In the first quarter of 2025
alone, major UK organisations, including Network Rail, Birmingham NHS Trust, Accenture, AMD and Kellanova, deployed 6,550 monitors through this programme. Te direct result: 8,218 trees planted.
Birmingham NHS Trust’s deployment of 1,500 energy-efficient displays translated to 897 trees. Network Rail’s infrastructure upgrade resulted in over 3,200 trees taking root. Recent client Workman LLP’s monitor purchase resulted in 2,562 trees planted, which will absorb 64 tonnes of CO2 annually, whilst creating over 102 work hours for local communities. Te cumulative impact now exceeds 58,699 trees, generating an
estimated 6,025 tonnes of oxygen annually whilst absorbing 1,468 tonnes of CO2 each year. Tese figures aren’t projections. Tey represent trees already in the ground, monitored for five years to ensure survival.
The Tanzania connection Te trees get planted in Tanzania’s Usambara Mountain region, one of the world’s most critically deforested biodiversity hotspots. Heavy
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