Copenhagen: what's the IT industry doing about it?
So how do ICT companies size up when it comes to action over climate change? Are some companies really much greener than others? Beyond the leafy veneer of their environmental CSR pages, will their initiatives really have deep impact, or are they just flower arranging?
The Cool IT campaign tracks 14 top companies, rating them based on five criteria: public climate speeches; political advocacy; climate solutions; own emissions targets and renewable energy use. These are combined to give a total score out of 100. At the moment, by our reckoning, less than 50/100 is pretty lame. Anyone who knows what it's like to score 43 on a school assignment would probably agree.
IBM CEO Sam Palmisano.
We know ICT companies go out of their way to resource and employ the biggest brains and spectacles they can to stay top of the class in innovation and business strategy, but on Climate & Survival 101 (which implicates all innovation and business as long as they involve humans living on planet earth), ICT are under-performing. What's missing from their efforts? How do the better ones compare, and where can they improve?
Not exactly slam dunk
Take IBM, Microsoft and Google: the industry's leading jocks, if you will. IBM came top of our ranking, but is still lagging. Sam Palmisano towed IBM over the line into the end zone with a real chocolate-coated pretzel of a score: 43 out of 100. IBM's metaphorical sneakers are its own emissions target: first, because not all companies even have targets (so, well done to IBM for putting their shoes on before the game); second because it has met some of its targets.
IBM also scooped a little turf for its climate solutions - its energy efficiency-enhancing Smart Cities and smart grid projects. However, these technologies won't be enough to ensure global emissions peak by 2015. For a treaty at Copenhagen to ensure the energy revolution necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change, Palmisano needs to harness political weight; but it's highly unlikely that he will. For speeches and advocacy together, IBM scores a dismal 8/35.
Fourth in the ranking, Google got a plain-old-pretzel with a score of 32/100. An industry giant, the company came in behind HP and Fujitsu, with a modest 7/50 for climate solutions versus IBM's 23/50 - duethanks to its power-guzzling data centres that are still tied to fossil fuel energy production. Google scored zero on its own emissions target, because unlike most other companies, it has none.
Still, CEO Eric Schmidt does get a Sparkly Pyjamas Prize for Speech and Advocacy (lucky him!) beating all the others in the ranking with a combined score of 24/35 versus IBM's 8/35 (HP and Fujitsu in 2nd and 3rd place on the ranking scored only 12/35 and 7/35).
ICT leaders need to put pressure on their governments to secure a strong treaty that puts the legislative / incentive structures in place for a real energy revolution. (Read about our Energy Revolution Campaign here). More action in the style of Apple's departure from the Chamber of Commerce is what we need to see in the run up to, during, and after Copenhagen.
Microsoft gone soft?
Better known as a head-locking tackler when it comes to lobbying and industrial competition, Microsoft is quite simply a soggy dog biscuit in the rankings on environment and climate policy. Given the size and political influence Microsoft has, a combined score of 7/35 for public climate speech and political advocacy is very poor.
The company does score higher than IBM and Google for renewable energy use (with 4/5, versus 2/5 and 1/5, respectively), since it for purchases about 25% of its energy from renewable sources, however, CEO Steve Ballmer has not yet taken advantage of his high profile to speak out on climate policy. For own emissions target, a flimsy "relative" goal means that Microsoft scored a sad zero out of five.
In contrast, HP - which came 2nd in the ranking - has a strong target of 25% reduction by 2010 based on its 2005 emissions. While it would be better to base targets on the 1990 level, the company still earned credit for making an absolute target, and came in ahead of Cisco, which based its 25% target on a 2007 baseline.
Cisco and Intel, in 5th and 6th place, both get credit for their high renewable usage: a respectable 46% for each. But they still need to do substantially more in terms of developing climate solutions and political advocacy, to move up the ranks.
Photo by Hyku.
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