Archive for the 'supplychain' Category

Dell HQ - only buying Renewable Energy

Published
by
monkchips
on April 2, 2008
in IT and supplychain
. 0 Comments

This news just in.

Of course buying green energy is only a very small part of a sustainability strategy. But its a darned good placeholder, especially when part of the solution is turning landfill gas into power. Stink sequestration? ;-)

Dell is using all of the power generated from Waste Management’s Austin Community Landfill gas-to-energy plant, meeting 40 percent of Dell headquarters’ campus power needs. The remaining 60 percent comes from existing wind farms and is provided by TXU Energy.

Dell also announced today it is increasing green power use for its Austin Parmer Campus, provided by Austin Energy, from eight to 17 percent. The company is a leading participant in Austin Energy’s GreenChoice® power program. Dell also is powering its Twin Falls, Idaho, facility with 100 percent green power, 97 percent of which is wind power and three percent solar.

Why blog this? Because headquarters tend to reflect how a company thinks about itself. On the one hand you can argue improving the HQ is just green window dressing. But I prefer in this case to be more positive on Dell’s intentions. Its a corporate leader and a very well respected brand. So well done Dell for showing leadership in your power purchasing, although I could have done without the hardware pimping in the press release though. Stay. On. Topic.

What a surprise - Dell is leading when it comes to purchasing power. Sometimes core competence really does make sense in another context. Now if it could just start reselling green power to its customers…

Do you know of other corporations that have made the commitment to power 100% of their HQ operations using green power? German web hosting provider Strato is the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

Green is a form of Lean

Published
by
monkchips
on January 28, 2008
in Europe, Microsoft, SAP, Uncategorized, carbon, footprint, global warming, supplychain and waste
. 7 Comments

Many of us are thinking through the implications of greener supply chains.

Al has been giving it some lately, for example, with his thoughts on the Carbon Added Tax. Over at SAP Research Andreas Vogel is leading the charge. IBM is doing some solid work here, as is BT. But we’re beginning to see a potential backlash, based on the Greens are Dreamers frame. The argument is that green thinking and approaches will be jettisoned as economic conditions toughen. But is that necessarily the case? Jason Busch from SpendMatters nails it in a post entitled How Will Green / Sustainable Procurement Play in a Recession?

While it would be easy to dismiss green and sustainable procurement practices as a luxury for companies to invest in when times are good, I actually believe that they could help organizations to buoy their top lines and pull up from a spiraling downturn or period of contraction. Whether it’s better marketing the benefits of green supplier practices to customers to spur pent-up demand or making investments in supplier development initiatives which reduce unnecessary packaging, supplier-focused sustainability initiatives have the potential to drive sales and reduce cost.”

I hold a similar line: it seems daft to argue, as the Bush Administration repeatedly has, that efficiency efforts harm economies. Efficiency can help you cut cost, even if (especially if?) its energy costs we’re talking about. Jason gets some great comments on his post. For actionable advice why not try Paul Gooch’s suggestion:

A former employer of mine ran an internal initiative called WRAP…waste reduction always pays. This applies as much to purchasing as any functional activity. The benefits go straight to the bottom line, and in the process you reduce your energy usage, carbon footprint, etc

But Lisa Reisman really distills the arguments to 100% proof: “green is a form of lean”. Thinking about carbon consumption is not just protectionist sabre-rattling: its an efficiency argument. It strikes me at the moment many economists and business commentators just aren’t thinking through their positions. We’re seeing rhetoric as the primary argument. Greens are luddites. Localisation means a return to the stone age. And so on. Green is a form of lean.

The implications for software and services companies are clear - keep investing in Green, recession or not. You can always change your marketing to read “cost-cutting”. If however you’re relying on a return to abundance as a primary planning assumption you could be in major trouble. Spend matters green or not.