The green economy – we can all make a difference?
Achieving sustainable economic growth will require change. We know that South Africa has a mandate to drive a much greener economy that not only examines investment and job creation, but turns the economy to examine cleaner industries. And what better place to start that in the tech industry? Technology has always had the ability to influence how people work and live – as it is a sector long known for its innovation – so why then is this sector’s impact and approach still limited?
South African businesses can no longer dig their heads in the sand about the impact of organisations, products and services on the environment. While a shift is already occurring in many industries like construction, retail and motoring, the technology sector is lagging, to some extent. Could this be because many organisations in this sector are struggling to ascertain how to develop a programme or solution, without passing further costs onto the consumer (or affecting their digital experience) – as without this – no programme will be sustainable?
For us it was a no brainer. Our Carbon Neutral programme, which was recently launched to market, directly reduces a customers’ printing related carbon footprint, by offsetting this – at no additional charge – through sustainability specialists and partner, impactChoice. Based on last year’s figures, 594 977kgs of CO2-e was offset – which is the equivalent amount of carbon that would be sequestered by over 15 000 tree seedlings grown for 10 years*.
Sure, this programme took time and effort to develop as care was taken to refine the programme – to ensure it not only benefits Itec and our customers – but that it was sustainable and made a real impact – but it was worth it. In fact, the entire process is audited to ensure validity and customers can be assured that their solution is now in fact 100% carbon neutral.
It has been said that sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs as well. And given that sustainability will depend on the evolution of energy technologies – what better industry that the IT sector to drive this – it’s time to use our culture of change and innovation to make a real difference.