Environmental benefits can come about by selecting the right ICT products and services. How do you ensure that your hardware, software and services suppliers provide green products?
The Australian Government's Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines (2008) stated that:
"Procurement encompasses the whole process of acquiring property or services. It begins when an agency has identified a need and decided on its procurement requirement. Procurement continues through the processes of risk assessment, seeking and evaluating alternative solutions, contract award, delivery of and payment for the property or services and, where relevant, the ongoing management of a contract and consideration of options related to the contract."
Large organisations, will typically have complex procurement policies with detailed processes. Some of the Procurement Principles considered by the Australian Government were: Value for Money, Competition, Efficient and Effective Use of Resources, and Accountability.
Sustainability considerations may be included in each stage of the calculations. Costs will be effected where, for example, higher efficiency power supplies are required. Consideration might be given to purchasing smaller quantities of equipment to be used more intensively. The equipment may need to be to a higher quantity, to allow for more intensive use, as well as requirements for materials to meet recycling and hazardous materials standards. The source of the equipment may play a larger role with the energy use in delivery being considered. As well as the direct benefit of the product to the organisation, its effect on the environment and the community generally needs to be considered. Purchasing arrangements may go beyond conventional legal contracts and involve long term partners, which commit one organisation to another.
ICT procurement is typically indirect procurement. That is ICT procurement activities concern "operating resources" for the organisation's operations. This contrasts with direct procurement, where raw materials are used in making some other product.
Procurement may involve a Tendering process, with potential suppliers submitting bids. Usually the potential supplier which submits the lowest bid which complies with the requirements is accepted. However, other criteria in addition to price may be used to assess tenders. Green ICT requirements may be included in the requirements and/or could be included in the criteria used for assessment.
Large organisations are likely to have a formal Corporate Sustainability or Green Procurement Policy intended to apply to products and services, including ICT. The policy will include a general statement of aims, including a commitment to improve the environment, reduce the environment impacts and promote sustainable development. This is done by integration of environment performance in the procurement process.
As an example of green procurement Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) provide on their web site:
Policies can have different levels of enforcement. The Queensland Government's Operational Concept - Sustainable procurement (2008) include a requirement for agencies to set sustainability targets and report against them annually, but leaves the actual targets to the agencies to set.
The Australian Government's Energy Efficiency in Government Operations (EEGO) Policy (2006) aims to improve energy efficiency of Government operations.The policy required annual reporting of energy performance by agencies and portfolio energy intensity targets from 2011.
While use of an Australian version of the US EPA Energy Star program is required for appliances, the EEGO policy is in the main referring to buildings, and so doesn't cover desktop PCs and other ICT equipment in buildings. The policy refers to the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) undertake scoping studies to identify energy efficiency opportunities for computer centres, but there are no reports on progress with this.
The Australian Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts issued a request for tender for Desktop PCs and servers included extensive and Provision of Desktop, LAN, Helpdesk, and Midrange Services (2008). Suppliers were required to include details of power consumption, cooling requirements and ewaste disposal. The RFT included mandatory Energy Star specifications and a silver rating, on the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) specifications.
The department warned they may test equipment in the tender process or later. The supplier was required to commit to report annually on minimising environmental impacts, specify packaging waste specifications and look at recyclable and biodegradable packaging, as well as have a take-back program for packaging.
Apart from energy efficiency requirements, the tender required printers which can use 100% recycled content paper (but without any specific standard for paper being specified).
The Australian Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Request for Tender for Supply and maintenance of IT equipment (2008) included similar environmental standards to the Environment tender, but did not make energy saving mandatory. Tenderers were required to detail the heat output and power consumption of desktop PCs and Laptops configurations and how the claims were independently verified.
A later Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) Request for Tender for IT Hardware (2008) included energy saving requirements for up to 400 notebooks and 100 desktops computers. The tender document included a requirement to supply details of "Energy Rating" with: Energy Star Compliant, EPEAT rating or similar, Energy Consumption. Details of energy consumption was required for computers when: On and Operating Sleep, Standby, Switched Off but power point on. However, the energy efficiency rating was not a mandatory requirement of the tender.
The US Energy Policy Act (2005) required US federal agencies to procure products, including ICT, complying to the US EPS ENERGY STAR. Executive Order 13423 (Bush, 2007) required the agencies to activate the "sleep" features of ENERGY STAR on computers and monitors and requires agencies to buy EPEAT (2008) registered products.
Procurement process in your organisation: Describe the Procurement process in your organisation, or or an organisation you are familiar with. Is there a Tendering process, with formal assessment criteria? Describe any Green Procurement Policy in your organisation. If there is no such policy, outline what could be in such a policy.