Sustainability
Reducing a distributor’s carbon footprint
Mark McLardie, head of ESG at Westcon-Comstor explains what steps the business is taking to b a part of a sustainable supply chain.
What are some of the actions undertaken by Westcon-Comstor to promote a sustainable supply chain and circular technology? As a key player in the supply chain, specialist distributors like us have an important role to play in the transition to a low carbon economy. While holding ourselves accountable for our own actions is crucial, we also plan to use our scale and influence in the supply chain to promote eco-friendly technology solutions, reduce e-waste and help our partners do the same. At the beginning of 2022 we launched a climate strategy definition
project. Tat process resulted in a five-year roadmap towards decarbonisation and an outline of the steps the business can take to get there. We recognise that the majority of our emissions are linked to the goods and services we buy from our vendors. Reducing these as much as possible is a major priority, so we’re working with our vendors to better understand the root causes of these emissions and how they plan to address them. Having these regular discussions and working together to understand each other’s carbon footprint is a key part of our sustainability plan and ensures our vendors are aligned with our own climate aspirations. While there’s been huge progress in recent months, supporting
partners with sustainability is far from new and has long been on our agenda. We’ve been supporting reverse logistics since 2007. Over the last 16 years, our partners have utilised over 400,000 units of used equipment and saved over $6 million by reusing IT cables alone. By facilitating the movement of IT equipment from customers back to our logistics facilities for re-use, we’re playing a crucial role in extending the life cycle of valuable technology, and reducing
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e-waste. When equipment has genuinely reached the end of its useful life, we work with authorised partners to ensure it’s recycled in an environmentally friendly manner.
What has been the reaction from the channel community? Is being a responsible business an important factor for partners? We’re having more and more discussions with our partners. Tis is clearly a topic that’s becoming more important to them and is higher up on their agendas than it ever has been. In fact, we’re seeing partners increasingly introduce a demand
to hear about this topic as part of the RFP process. Tis could include evidence of aligning with sustainability frameworks, or the introduction of internal ESG practices. At Westcon-Comstor, we’re working towards introducing similar prerequisites as part of our supplier code of conduct, to ensure our partner ecosystem is constituted by other responsible companies and promote best practices across the supply chain.
What changes can partners implement to become more environmentally and socially responsible? Becoming a more responsible business is about considering the environment, society at large, and the economy in which you operate. Tis means not only being driven by profit, but also by a desire to improve the world through ethically sound processes, services and solutions, providing equal working opportunities and inclusive working conditions, and a focus on minimising impact on the planet. Tis cannot be achieved overnight, and instead
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