Last week, Jonathan Perry, our WEEE Take Back and Recycling Programme Manager in the UK, took part in a panel discussion at CRN’s annual ChannelExpo show in Birmingham, UK, examining how the channel community can work with customers to implement Green IT strategies.
The panel covered a number of environmental issues resellers and their customers are facing today – primarily, who is responsible for disposing safely of IT systems and what more can be done by manufacturers to assist the channel community in embracing and promoting Green IT practices for their customers. With energy efficiency and recycling issues being at the top of the agenda for companies of all sizes, clearly there is an opportunity for resellers to gain a business advantage by working with their customers to deploy Green IT practices and technologies. Questions from the audience ranged from how resellers can make a profit from selling recycling services to customers, to whether the channel knows enough about the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. Jonathan spoke about Dell’s Asset Recovery Services, available to resellers in the UK looking to offer recycling services to customers.
The panel also discussed how technology can be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Implementing simple strategies such as: installing energy saving features on computers, deploying virtualisation technologies or working with customers to look at energy-efficient products. In the discussion, he mentioned Dell's goal to increase the energy efficiency of our desktops and laptops by an additional 25 percent.
Iin the absence of an industry standard for energy-efficient and green products, IT manufacturers need to work closely with the channel and customers in communicating and demystifying the scale of the environmental challenge and the solutions available.
We'd love to hear how you’re using green IT to achieve your own environmental goals. Feel free to comment here or over at ReGeneration.org.