Any reason to be Green?

Legislation plays a pivotal role in how all successful businesses run. If you fail to meet the expectations of the major regulations put in place by the government, in time your business will get found out and suffer. How do you deal with areas and topic not covered by government legislation? Why would a business bother adopting policies and practices which aren’t legally binding?

Many businesses are aware of the Green issue, the IT industry and the government included. Several vendors, distributors and resellers have already taken steps to become more Green.

At Haymarket Media we’ve assessed our electricity consumption and recycling while looking to work with external suppliers to improve efficiencies and minimise environmental damage. We didn’t have to make these steps – we chose to. But that doesn’t mean every firm has such dedication to Green issues.

What’s in place?

According to the Department of State and Regional Development, Australia maintains one of the strictest regimes of environmental regulation in the world. The World Economic Forum’s 2006-07 Global Competitiveness Report ranks Australia 16th out of 125 nations for overall stringency of its environmental regulations.

One of the most significant local steps took place late last year when the newly elected Labor Party signed the instrument of ratification on the Kyoto Protocol. The previous government declined to ratify the agreement, arguing the protocol would cost Australians jobs and that Australia was already doing enough to cut emissions. The Kyoto Protocol comprises two mechanisms under which projects can receive credits for reducing emissions – the first is the joint implementation (JI) mechanism, the second the clean development mechanism (CDM). The signing was a huge step forward, but what’s really lacking is IT-specific regulations.

There are regulations which affect IT companies such as the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (NGER Act) which establishes a national framework for Australian corporations to report greenhouse gas emissions, reductions, removals and offsets, and energy consumption and production, from 1 July 2008. The NGER Act aims to achieve positive outcomes for business, communities and government by cutting red tape for business by reducing the number of reports to government and eliminating duplication across existing state, territory and national schemes. This raises another current issue where Australia’s different states are implementing regulations, fragmenting the overall Green message.
Lagging behind Europe

According to local IT market research firm Springboard Research: “Legislation mandating Green IT policies are generally embryonic and being adopted at disparate rates across countries, with the EU at the forefront. Australia lags behind in some respects and has a poor reputation for environmental leadership.”

Despite recently signing the Kyoto Protocol, Australia still lags behind European efforts. One of the most significant developments the EU has made is the RoHS Directive, which came into force two years ago. It stands for “the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment”. It bans the placing on the EU market of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants.

The RoHS Directive has played a huge role in the European market, with IT firms having to shell out large sums of money to become RoHS compliant.

It doesn’t stop at RoHs either. The European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive was introduced in 2003 and set collection, recycling and recovery targets for all types of electrical goods. There’s also the ISO 14000 environmental management standards which aim to help firms minimise how their operations negatively affect the environment alongside complying with applicable laws
and regulations.

RoHS and WEEE aren’t new, knee-jerk regulations in Europe – they’ve been in place for years. In 2008 there’s still no word similar regulations will be introduced here. That’s not to say they won’t be looked at to be introduced soon. With the signal of intent the Labor government made with Kyoto, it seems more likely than ever.

IT bodies

Australia’s IT bodies have views on the Green IT issue and outline guidelines for how businesses can reduce emissions. The Australian Computer Society (ACS) recommends the optimisation of resource use, implementing sleep modes on workstations, introducing offset programs, using virtualisation, initiating integrated telephony and automated power control. The ACS also believes the energy rating system, a joint initiative of the federal, state and territory governments, should be extended to cover all domestic and commercial ICT equipment.

The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) states that “environmental sustainability is no longer a choice for ICT companies, but a business imperative”. The AIIA is working with its members to minimise the industry’s collective environmental footprint. The body is involved with a number of sustainability projects and programs, including developing a voluntary industry-driven recycling and product stewardship strategy, called Byteback, which was established last year with Sustainability Victoria; promoting the role that technology-led solutions play in the reduction of CO² and Australia’s carbon emissions; establishing the Environment Special Interest Group; working with government and industry towards the adoption of national standards on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS); and supporting AIIA member companies in their sustainability endeavours.

The bottom line

These bodies are nothing more than toothless tigers, they have no legal powers. They can offer advice and best Green practices, but that doesn’t mean any company will bother abiding by their recommendations. The Australian IT industry needs Green regulations not only to justify and encourage internal environmental efforts, but to open up opportunities for resellers to sell off the back of firms having to become Green compliant.

Imagine how much additional business will be driven not just to virtualisation resellers, but to firms who can provide a complete Green review to customers and advise them on what can be implemented to ensure they are up-to-date with all Green regulations. At the moment, resellers attempting to sell on the Green angle may find end-users unwilling to invest in an area which is not legally binding. What the new Australian government does next is critical to the environment and the channel.