Gartner call on Green issues (20-Jul-07)

From Lauraibm

• Sectors e.g. Retail, Financial Services and Telecommunications have the key opportunities and are leading the way in understanding Green Issues.

• The Public sector, on the other hand, are pushing everything down the suppply chain and are not actually doing anything material themselves.

• The IT market are not connecting their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with the implications implied. They need to know what their CSR says and act in co-ordination with this.

The Issue of Climate Change

It is true that companies seem to be jumping on the bandwagon with regards to Green Issues. However, the issue of climate change means the Green Issue is not just a fashion or fad, but will continue to gain increasing attention.

The broader issue of sustainability has a more questionable future, but it is likely that this too will continue to gain attention.

Status on Green Issues

• Germany are ahead of the UK in terms of their knowledge on, and actions regarding electronic waste and solar panels, etc.

• The UK on the other hand are ahead of Germany in terms of being aware of the Climate Change issues.

• The US & European Perspectives on Green Issues are very different.

The US has a more divisive approach, hence it is harder to characterise what they are doing with regards to green issues. The consequence of this is that we should not be looking to the US for guidance on what to do as we are likely to hear conflictin issues and this poses the danger of only latching on to aspects we want to hear and discarding the other aspects.

The European perspective is non-divisive, as a result most progress on Green Issues comes from Europe.