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ICT Procurement
Information and communication technologies (ICTs)
are at the heart of economic growth in the modern world. They enable
us to process and exchange information in increasingly greater
quantities, at higher speeds, with more detail and provide easier
and wider access to information. There is a mass of analysis on
how the benefits of ICTs can be captured for economic gain via
e-business and e-commerce, and increasing attention to the social
and economic impacts of the use of the technology. There has been
less attention by users to the environmental impacts of the hardware
they’re using, particularly in its manufacture and disposal.
They have accordingly not exercised any significant influence on
manufacturers, and progress has tended to come from manufacturers’ voluntary
initiatives and through some regulatory and NGO pressure.
UK CEED, SustainIT’s parent organisation, has been investigating
the dividends and liabilities for sustainable development from
the use of ICTs (the software) since 1995, and this survey of corporate
purchasing professionals is an extension of this work to production,
use and disposal of the hardware. In product and service supply
lines, corporate purchasers have tremendous influence. They usually
operate with the balance of market power in their favour, enabling
them to exert downward pressure on prices and production/delivery
timescales and upward pressure on quality. There is therefore in
principle no reason why the same cannot apply to pressure on environmental
standards, although in practice lack of knowledge about the relevant
standards and their accessibility is a major obstacle.
Accordingly this survey sought to identify what buyers know about
environmental standards for computer equipment, the environmental
information flows to them and the criteria buyers attach to their
computer procurement. The objectives were to:
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raise awareness of IT-related environmental issues among
purchasing professionals
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better understand their information needs
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assist in improving information flows to them
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Survey information
A survey of corporate purchasers undertaken by SustainIT and
the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply has shown that
they are in the dark about the environmental impacts associated
with
computer products.
The survey asked purchasers about the environmental information
they try to obtain in purchasing desktop PCs and the ease or difficulty
they experience in obtaining it. Over half of respondents considered
it difficult to obtain.
For example, energy consumption data, the most researched and
catalogued by manufacturers, was received by only a third of respondents.
Over half of those requesting energy information did not receive
it. On end of use takeback and recyclability, there is little interchange
between suppliers and buyers - about 15% of buyers get involved
in discussions. Obsolete computers were sent for refurbishment
or recycling by 40% of buying organisations who responded, which
is better than the most recently reported UK average of about 26%.
The same pattern of results applied to provision of information
to buyers on environmental standards schemes (such as Ecolabels),
hazardous substances such as heavy metals and flame retardants,
recycling of computers and suppliers' use of environmental management
systems. It was matched by a low proportion of buyers specifying
environmental standards, although there was an active minority.
There was an indication that local authorities were more active
on computer environmental standards than the private sector. The
survey confirmed that health and safety and other labour standards
applying in factories making components and machines were off the
horizon for nearly all buying organisations.
Environmental pressures on computer manufacturers and suppliers
are increasing, particularly as the likely requirements of the
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directives become
firmer, opening up competitive opportunities. On energy consumption,
for example, there are wide differences in between makes and models,
even for those complying with energy efficiency schemes, which
could add up to significant extra costs for those who make the
wrong choices.
The survey was carried out in October and November 2000 among
members of the CIPS. The full report and annexes are available
here.
SustainIT Survey of IT Purchasing - A survey of corporate purchasers
undertaken by SustainIT and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply
has shown that they are in the dark about the environmental impacts
associated with computer products.
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