Going green or greenwashing?

Increasingly consumers are demanding more sustainable efforts from the brands they interact with. Companies need to ensure that their concerted efforts to ‘go green’ aren’t labelled as greenwashing and that they are truly attempting to reduce their negative environmental impact.

From start to finish, customers want to believe businesses and brands are making a change and that includes partnering with sustainable suppliers. This can seem like a scary process, with serious backlash if you get it wrong, but there are various standards in place that can help you make an informed decision.

RoHS compliance has been with us for some time and means that a product has been tested for 10 banned substances and confirmed to be below the RoHS threshold1. Similarly, REACH is an EU-initiative that requires companies to identify and manage the risks posed by chemicals2 .

The WEEE Directive, which refers to Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, obliges the manufacturers or distributors of such equipment to take responsibility for the disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment3 . ISO 14001 is the international standard for environmental management systems (EMS) and the most widely used EMS in the world, with over 360,000 ISO 14001 certificates issued globally. Any supplier with ISO 14001 certification is taking the subject seriously.

Power efficiency is also an important consideration, especially for IT equipment. The rise of cloud computing and the proliferation of content streaming services has led to a boom in data storage. Left unchecked, it is estimated that data storage alone will be responsible for 14% of global emissions by 2040 — the same proportion as the US accounts for today.

IT has traditionally been quite forgiving when it comes to power efficiency - Intel’s ATX specification, for example, only requires that a power supply is 60% efficient at 50% load. To give you an indication of how seriously any given product takes energy efficiency, check out its ENERGY STAR rating, which is similar to the European Union energy label for domestic appliances5. To achieve an 80 PLUS Platinum rating – the highest category – manufacturers need to achieve 92% efficiency at 50% and 89% efficiency at 100% load.

PROMISE is a global data storage manufacturer that is placing environmental considerations at the heart of its business. “Offering green data storage solutions is a critical step to reaching net zero targets. With demand for data continuing to rise, we need to step up our efforts to contribute to a greener world,” commented Alice Chang, Chief Sales Officer, PROMISE Technology.

PROMISE commits a significant proportion of their R&D spend to improving their PSU power efficiency. Innovative mechanical engineering combined with airflow optimisation has enabled their storage devices to exceed the 80 PLUS Platinum rating, achieving with 91% efficiency at 100% loads. UK-based video processor manufacturer tvONE takes a similarly assiduous approach to tackling environmental issues. Recently the company embarked on an ambitious project to eliminate 95% of all plastics in their shipping materials. In the process they also made significant reductions in paper and cardboard usage by reviewing their own supply chain. Key components are now sourced in both Europe and North America for on-continent final assembly, reducing shipping costs.

Like PROMISE, tvONE addresses green issues with innovation. Modularity is a key differentiator – many products can be upgraded as demand dictates, rather than sending old AV equipment to landfill. Space optimisation is important too. The ONErack Spider is a multi-voltage DC PSU strip designed to accommodate many different devices, eliminating clutter and providing reliable and efficient power to support a mix of different voltages. Continually working to reduce power consumption not only reduces costs, but also extends product life cycles – in the case of the flagship CORIOmaster video processor, that’s now up to 12 years of 24/7 operation. “We’re making a concerted effort to reduce our environmental impact by designing high performance equipment with low power requirements, that is modular for easy upgradability, manufactured in-house and sustainably packaged,” said Mark Trevena, Communications & Training “ Manager. “That hopefully contributes to lower lifetime running costs, fewer airmiles and less landfill.”