How To GO GREEN
The Global demand to become environmentally sustainable has intensified over the past few years. Increased Economic pressures, Energy costs, Customer awareness, and Regulations have pushed companies to reassess their (Green) Policies. But how does a company 'Go Green' while keeping the Bottom-line thick Black? The right set of strategies can turn the green Challenge into a competitive advantage for the company.
Companies everywhere are feeling the pressure to 'Go Green' and include the environmental sustainability into their business strategies. This imperative is reflected in consumers demanding more environment friendly products, environmental groups pushing for waste reduction, and legislators enacting/citing increasingly complex regulations. Even the investment banks and VC funds are taking into account potential charges for CO2 emissions when deciding whether to extend financial help to the companies that have large carbon footprints or the 'Polluters'.
In the current market situation most firms would hardly argue against the need to take a greener approach. A big chunk of the companies in the world are making the Environmental sustainability as the part of their Global Strategy and some of them going green to fulfill customers' requirements or increase customer confidence.
But it’s one thing to embrace green and another thing entirely to practice it while growing revenues and profit margins. The right path forward is inherent in the company’s business strategy - How a company leverages the various facets of its operations for competitive advantage. In order for a Green Business Strategy to be effective; it’s essential to incorporate sustainable practices into both product lifecycle and Project and Process management.
In the past most of the companies used cradle to grave approach in product life cycle management, the company was not responsible after the product was sold but now the Green trend is cradle to cradle that is reuse and recycle the product. The idea behind this approach is simple the companies start at the conception of the product. They design, manufacture and deliver the product in the most energy-efficient way and also device the ways and means to reuse or recycle these.
The most applaudable and recent example is Nokia. They have incentivised the customers to return the used mobile device back to company through its dealers to get the discount on the new device and to connect the ends Nokia designed a mobile device with recycled materials. These and energy-efficient approaches like Green Infrastructure, buildings and Data centers are the inward looking approaches.
And there is no one who can doubt about the inward looking approaches, but the other part of looking outward is as important if not more. Looking outward is an approach to allow the customers save the energy and become Green by offering the energy efficient solutions. IT industry can play a very important role here. IT can help all other industries to measure, control and maintain the efficiently run (Green) business.
The above concept asks for a lot of research and domain expertise in the particular area; whether it is in designing of buildings or products, manufacturing or disposing or efficiently managing the flow of energy. IT companies can come out with solutions that will help their customers measure the carbon footprint of their assets, control and maintain the low carbon emissions.
In India and world over IT industry is thought to be one of the big polluters both directly and indirectly. While in the US ICT equipments are responsible for more than 40% of the total energy consumption; in India IT industry accounts for indirectly polluting the country, as they account for more than 40% of travel.
The above analysis brings us to the set of solutions required in such different situations. While to address the situation like the one in the US and most of the developed countries, there is a need to develop more energy-efficient infrastructure and products; for the other type of situation like India and most developing nations it is important to have smart IT solutions.
These Smart solutions will range from smart logistics, smart infra to smart meetings. As the Smart 2020 report of the Climate group mentions the opportunities for the developing nations/economies like India in IT solutions. While India can address her own problem of rising carbon footprint by developing and employing Smart IT solutions, India can also emerge as a leading provider of Green solutions to the world. May be this is an Indian answer to the recessionary world economy. Few of the Indian IT companies like WIPRO and Infosys has taken a lead in 'Green IT Consulting'; this is the larvae of the beautiful butterflies, which is capable of bringing in the required surge in the IT industry.
Environmentally conscious companies view themselves as part of the greater community. They view stakeholders - Institutional Investors, environment groups, and NGOs, not as adversaries, but as partners critical for fulfilling Green Goals. Green companies also make a point of staying attuned to what future Business requirements and regulatory compliance issues are likely to be.
The greenest companies also know what green strategies other players in their value network are planning to employ. They aim to become an instrument of change and a role model in their industry. Regardless of whether a company is a small business or a fortune 500 giant, there are a number of ways to grow greener while improving revenues and profits. It's clear that the greenest companies yield an important source of competitive advantage and given the growing number of consumers who are putting their money, where there is environmental conscience; it is not long before Green becomes critical to staying in the game.
There is a need for all round involvement by the agencies like NASSCOM, TERI, CII besides government and focus on all the important facets of the Green print of Success i.e. look inward and become Green, Look outward and make everyone else Green and imbibe the Green culture in the society.
The Green IT initiative of NASSCOM takes care of involving all the stake holders and move around the following three vectors:
* Make IT industry Green
* Make Green happen through IT
* Make Green warriors
(Courtesy: NASSCOM)