Lígia Mendonça
Microsoft Surface Product Marketing Manager — WE HQ
Sustainability is no longer a competitive differentiator — it’s a “business necessity,” according to Forrester [1]. Social, environmental, regulatory, and even customer requirements have made this a permanent state of global industry. For procurement leaders, that means achieving sufficient sustainability through sourcing while maintaining your company’s profitability.
As you look to achieve your sustainability targets, consider your IT procurement practice. Most business leaders don’t realize that their choice of IT products has a considerable impact on the environment. Global data traffic has an environmental impact equal to that of business travel. It’s therefore an ideal area of focus for achieving sustainability goals for your company.
You can be both sustainable and profitable. In fact, successful sustainability strategies reduce operational costs and boost profitability. Sustainability also increasingly aligns with both employee and customer satisfaction. As an issue that affects all aspects of your business, it’s time to take sustainability seriously within your technology procurement function.
Procurement and sourcing leaders often overlook the environmental aspects of their IT investments, focusing only on performance, cost, and longevity instead. This is due in part to misconceptions about the impact of devices on the environment and the availability of more sustainable supply chains.
In fact, “buying gadgets or using any kind of online service consume carbon and energy,” The New York Times[2] describes; so much so, that “the environmental and climate costs of the technology we use are stunning.” How these products are used and how they perform are important factors. Equally important are what resources have been used and will be used to achieve that performance.
To ensure sustainability is a real factor when purchasing IT equipment, aspects such as hazardous chemicals, energy consumption, manufacturing conditions, distribution, and lifetime CO2 emissions must factor into the procurement decision-making process.
You can start by identifying suppliers who provide sustainability insights about their products. Ideally, these insights begin with manufacturing and distribution and then continue throughout the devices’ operation until they are recycled. These insights should include elements that have the greatest negative environmental impact, as well as benefits compared to alternative products. In this way, you can factor those pros and cons into your own sustainability initiatives.
Key factors in a successful supplier sustainability agenda include:
Meeting the targets of this agenda means measuring key aspects of the production, distribution, operation, and retirement processes. The most noteworthy factors include:
Procurement teams should begin seeking out suppliers who provide these types of data — a benefit that likely will become a best practice in the near term. For example, Microsoft studies in detail the composition of materials in the production of its Surface computers so that it can phase out substances of concern throughout the manufacturing process. This is one way Microsoft repeatedly factors in environmental and equity aspects at every stage of its products’ lifecycles.
Fortunately, sustainability increasingly aligns with profitability, employee and customer satisfaction, and better business in general. As Supply Chain Dive[3]describes, “Cost reduction and a focus on social responsibility are driving sustainability in the supply chain… now, the green alternative is frequently the low-cost alternative.”
Sustainable practices often streamline supply chain operations, for example, such as in the reduced price of power from sustainable sources and the lower risk of liability by avoiding the use of harmful chemicals. Tightening regulations that impose costs on companies mean sustainable sourcing now will ensure profitability in the future. For employees who value companies with sustainable practices, Forrester’s research shows that a “great employee experience reduces employee turnover and improves productivity” as well.
Some key factors of a successful sustainability agenda that contribute to profitability include:
For example, Microsoft’s Surface computers are built for extreme mobility and meet the highest performance standards for employees — they also satisfy the most stringent sustainability requirements.
Ensuring you procure the tools that you need while aligning with lasting sustainable best practices may seem difficult. But you can take simple steps today to ensure you meet these goals, including:
Microsoft intends to be carbon negative by 2030, and to have removed all the carbon that the company has emitted, either directly or by electrical consumption, from the environment by 2050. The company is also launching an initiative that will see it use its own technology to help suppliers and customers around the world to reduce their own carbon footprints. Surface and Windows 10 play a key role in ensuring that we achieve those aims.
Microsoft Surface takes sustainability seriously:
Discover how our new, high-performing and highly mobile Microsoft Surface suite of devices aligns with emerging sustainability best practices, helping us eliminate all the carbon the company has emitted by 2050 as well.
Notes
1. Forrester, “Rethinking Sustainability In The Middle Of A Pandemic”, August 2020
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