Environment
Finding sustainable businesses to reduce your costs PDF Print E-mail
Written by Darian Sims, Programme Manager, Océ Business Services, 2008   

When environmental sustainability is a key factor in the selection of a potential vendor, the challenge lies in determining if they really are sustainable. Darian Sims of Océ outlines the touch points to look for in a prospective managed services and technology vendor.

  • What does climate change mean for business objectives?
  • What questions can you ask prospective vendors to determine their environmental sustainability?

It has become vital for facilities managers to understand how to battle between two conflicting pressures: rising fuel bills verses static - or at worse, declining - budgets.

In an ever-stagnant economic climate, what kinds of strangleholds do these pressures have on your service levels and clients commitments?

Is there a ray of hope behind this growing storm that will help to turn around the pressure and deliver more with less?

Perhaps the answers can be found in the newest fad of all: environmental sustainability.

Is this the sabre that we can wield against the rallying forces of rising costs, while simultaneously holding at bay unnecessary waste and damage to our planet?

As sustainability becomes a criterion for working or not working with a potential vendor, the challenge many companies and workplace management teams face is determining if that provider is truly sustainable.

This is especially true in the outsourcing and FM markets, where relationships are long-term commitments that need to adhere tightly to the client's strategic objectives of cost savings without loss in productivity.

The outsourcing arm of a printing technology manufacturer conducted a survey that yielded some interesting results.

Findings showed that nearly 50 per cent of their clients asked what the manufacturer was doing to reduce their carbon footprint, both in the development of their technology and delivery of their outsourced services.

Particular interest should be drawn from the fact that many of the people asking these questions worked in the FM environments.

We are already seeing the increasing impact of environmental sustainability on supplier selection within FM.

The trend is pushing facilities managers to seek out suppliers who manufacture, deliver and service their offering much more sustainably than their competitors.

The SustainIT report predicts a tough future for suppliers because of 'green washing'. More than a third of UK consumers don't think technology companies 'walk the talk' when it comes to the environment, and as many as 36 per cent of them get confused by the sheer volume of environmental messages from these companies.

So it clear that sourcing greener suppliers is no bad thing, but there is so much noise out there and there doesn't appear to be any rules to the game at the moment, so what is the best approach?

The following attempts to define how to source sustainable suppliers and covers some of the trends, strategies and actions that businesses can take to ensure that they are working with sustainable service and technology providers.

Understand your client's needs


There is no point in undergoing a supplier sourcing programme if it doesn't meet your customer's needs.

As a responsible facilities manager your key objective is to provide a workplace that fits your client's working culture - and this may include its attitude towards working greener.

The latest reports on evidence for climate change by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in April 2007, describe the phenomenon of global warming as unequivocal, and state that it is very likely (i.e. more than 90 per cent certain) that most of the observed increases are due to man-made greenhouse gases.

It is helpful therefore to spell out what climate change means for business objectives:
  • Individual lifestyles need to change in the developed world; let's assume they need to change at the same rate as other industrial sectors.
  • For each person, there needs to be a reduction in harmful use of resources by 66 per cent in the UK (85 per cent in the US).

In other words, our lifestyles need to change beyond recognition - and importantly this is no different in the workplace.

Also, if you look beyond consumerism at the individual participation in ethical behaviours, statistics show that people increased their tendency to choose products and services on a basis of a company's responsible reputation, meaning that in 2005, 61 per cent of consumers purchased this way1.

A good CV for sustainability


Once you have a strong feel for how your organisation wishes to move the business forward in a greener way, you can start finding the right partners that match this strategy.

There are certain key points to look for when you're seeking sustainable business partners.

Look for a history of sustainable practices, a commitment to recycling, efforts to give parts and products a 'second life', energy-efficient engineering, a forward-looking approach to waste and emissions handling, compliance with sustainability regulations, and any awards that recognise the company for environmentally responsible business practices.

In addition to this there is a growing requirement to conduct any managed service provision sustainably and in a manner that has minimal impact to your working environment.

Of course green business still needs to make good business sense and a key driver comes from the growing number of customers who are waking up to the reality of far more sustainable procurement policies.

Tenders are a key buying tool in our industry, in both public and private sectors, and over the last three years the request for specific information on sustainability has grown from rare to virtually universal.

Develop a plan that matches the business needs for how your FM team wants to operate sustainably and go to tender with this plan in mind.

If you are still unsure, ask your supplier what plans they may have to help you become more environmentally friendly.

If they are truly green in their approach then they should be able to answer immediately.

Are your future partner leaders in environmental sustainability?


As more and more technology vendors jump on the green bandwagon, how do you determine if a vendor is environmentally sustainable? Whether you are evaluating an existing service and technology partner or a potential one, if environmental sustainability matters to you and your business, it pays to know the score.

Considering a vendor? Use the checklist in Table 1 and see how they score.

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Table 1. Environmental sustainability checklist.

Looking to the past to see the future


Ironically, while sustainability is about the future, one of the best ways to determine if a company is truly sustainable is to look at its history.

Is sustainability a fashionable mantle that the company has suddenly donned? Or has sustainability been part of its DNA for years?

Look for a company that can demonstrate sustainable business practices - before it was fashionable to do so.

Key indicators? Consider companies that have taken steps to reduce the use of toxic materials, that designs sustainability into new products, and reduces, recycles and reuses materials.

Ask a prospective provider if they have sustainable processes for handling waste and emissions and transporting materials, and ask them to show you how sustainability is being incorporated into business models and strategic planning cycles - evidence that the company is continuing to refine its focus on a sustainable future.

Ask the service provider what plans they have to incorporate sustainable practices into their on-site business processes.

Proactive managed service operators will not only have plans but case histories to prove they have delivered against sustainable targets before.

Reuse and recycling


While it isn't the only component of sustainability, recycling is an essential pillar of a wider programme of sustainable business practices.

As well as managing outsourced services, your supplier may also buy in or manufacture technology as part of its delivery mechanism.

While many companies continue to send used technology to landfills (because their focus is selling equipment today), truly sustainable companies create products with components that can be recycled.

They support recycling in their manufacturing and routine business practices, along with a remanufacturing process.

Recovering parts and materials for reuse or recycling reduces consumption of new materials and parts. It also eliminates the waste inherent in the manufacture of new materials.

Darian Sims is Programme Manager for Océ Business Services, UK - the managed services arm of global technology and managed services supplier Océ.

Reference
1. Co-operative Bank, Ethical Consumerism Report, 2006.
 
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