News 18 March 2019 News from SKAO
IT corporation Bechtle collaborates to reduce carbon emissions with the CO2 Performance Ladder
The German IT corporation Bechtle has recently been certified on level 3 of the CO2 Performance Ladder. The activities of the organisations that fall under the umbrella of Bechtle, vary from developing a wireless IT infrastructure to building digital work places. With a certificate on the CO2 Performance Ladder, Bechtle aims not only to structurally reduce its carbon emissions, but also to collaborate more effectively with all its entities to achieve common goals of sustainability.
More demand for sustainability and corporate social responsibility in tenders
The different companies of Bechtle are active in the B2B IT market. The corporation has 70.000 clients worldwide, both in the public as well as commercial sector. For the public sector, which contains governmental organisations, Bechtle works according to tender procedures. The organisations of Bechtle notice that the demand for sustainability and corporate social responsibility is increasing. With a certificate on the CO2 Performance Ladder, Bechtle therefore aims to not only strengthen its market position in procurement procedures, but also to confirm that sustainability plays an central role in its organisation as well as its projects. The IT corporation states that it will implement the CO2 Performance Ladder in all its tenders from now on.
“We decided to obtain a certificate on the CO2 Performance Ladder for two of our corporations, namely Bechtle Holding and Bechtle Management”, says Janine Krijger, project manager of Bechtle Management. “Under these organisational boundaries, different entities are adjoined. The IT companies Buyitdirect.com and Bechtle direct are part of the boundary of Bechtle Holding. The boundary of Bechtle Management contains two companies, namely ARP Nederland and Articona International. All these companies are specialised in the area of IT solutions. Next to that, we conduct businesses as an IT reseller in hardware, software and IT supplies. With our brand Articona, we manage a range of IT accessories and IT connection solutions.”
Moreover, Bechtle offers cloud solutions and datacenters in the German city of Frankfurt. The corporation has 10.000 employees worldwide of which around 500 are working in the Netherlands.
Collaborating towards less CO2
“Before we implemented the CO2 Performance Ladder in our organisations, each entity of Bechtle had its own vision of sustainability and CO2 reduction. One of the Bechtle-companies was focused on generating green energy on its office building and another company wanted to invest more in fuel efficient lease cars. It all depended on what their ambitions were. By collaborating with all our entities, we can learn more from each other. What are our common goals and how can we facilitate one another therein? With the implementation of the CO2 Performance Ladder, there is more unity and collaboration among our entities. It was a great challenge to align the different visions on sustainability, but we succeeded in doing so”, says Krijger.
Green energy, efficient devices and fuel savings
Bechtle developed a task force to implement the CO2 Performance Ladder in its organisations. The task force consisted of representatives from all of the Bechtle entities. Next to certification on the Ladder, the task force focuses on sharing knowledge and insights on measures that cut back carbon emissions. The IT corporation decided to reduce 35 percent of its CO2 emissions by 2020. To achieve this goal, Bechtle focuses on three different measures. One of these measures concerns purchasing green energy (wind, hydropower and solar) generated in the Netherlands. Furthermore, the corporation aims to save its power consumption by investing in LED lighting in its buildings and energy efficient IT supplies, among other things. Finally, Bechtle wants to invest in electric lease cars. The corporation also stimulates fuel efficient driving among its employees. For this, Bechtle frequently controls the tire pressure of its lease cars, which should lead to 5 percent less fuel and a relative carbon reduction of 2 percent, according to the corporation.
Krijger: “After the analysis of our carbon footprint, it appears that the office buildings and fleet of cars of all Bechtle entities are responsible for the greatest amount of CO2 emissions. For this reason, we focus on measures that tackle these aspects of the organisation. Furthermore, we focus on measures that will increase awareness on sustainability among our employees. For example, we increased the budget for employees with a lease car to opt for an electric vehicle instead of a vehicle that runs on fossil fuels. We also monitor the fuel consumption of our vehicles and motivate our employees to come up with their own initiatives to cut back their carbon emissions.”
More innovative and inventive in reducing carbon emissions
“By implementing the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle that the CO2 Performance Ladder provides, we can become more and more innovative and inventive in cutting back our carbon emissions and striving towards a sustainable future. Our goal is to internalise these principals in our organisation. The biggest challenge will be to keep our common ambitions high. When we have taken plenty of measures to make our buildings and fleet of cars carbon neutral, we must remain ambitious and realistic in our goals to continuously and structurally reduce CO2. We are environmentally and socially responsible IT partners. With the CO2 Performance Ladder, we managed to implement an independent system that helps us achieve our sustainability goals.”