NET ZERO
Heroes of zero While the UK still has 27 years to achieve its Net Zero targets, many businesses are already working towards that aim as part of their sustainability goals – and it should be part of the conversation with customers for resellers now.
The UK’s Net Zero strategy was launched with much publicity back in 2021 ahead of the COP26 conference in Glasgow, where the government tried to position itself as a global leader in the fight against climate change. The strategy committed the UK to decarbonising its economy by 2050, including being powered entirely by clean electricity by 2035, ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, supporting low- carbon farming methods as well as providing £1.5 billion funding for supporting net zero innovation projects, among many other things. Nearly two years on, while there are queries about the government’s commitment to its environmental goals – which have been refuted – many businesses are busy making their operations more sustainable and putting in place what is needed to meet the target of being Net Zero by 2050. Xerox aim One business that already has Net Zero plans in place is Xerox. “We are focusing on three areas to reduce carbon and achieve Net Zero,” says Kevin Paterson, head of XBS UK and Xerox UK Channel at Xerox. “First, we are implementing energy efficiency and process improvements across our own operations including energy reduction in our buildings and shifting to more fuel efficient or hybrid vehicles for our engineers. We are also using CareAR to effectively solve client issues without having to send a vehicle to sites. “Second, collaboration upstream and downstream in our value chain is key. We are collaborating with our suppliers to reduce carbon emissions, working with our clients to help them make the best use of Xerox products and services, and developing commercial innovations to embrace the distributed digital workforce that shift workflows to less carbon intensive activities. Reduction of emissions is our primary goal; however, we know that some residual emissions will need to be compensated. “Lastly, we are utilising and exploring
options for renewable energy use and carbon compensation to bridge that gap.” Kevin Paterson is in no doubt as to the importance of this strategy. “The science is clear; if the world doesn’t considerably reduce greenhouse gas emissions now, we will be in a lot of trouble in the next few decades,” he says. “We have embraced the conclusions of the Paris climate agreement and believe that it is imperative to address climate change now. Climate change is already causing business and societal disruptions and it will only get worse. The best thing we can do is to reduce our emissions quickly to mitigate the worst projected impacts of climate change to provide a stable and sustainable business environment for the rest of this century.” Imperative He adds that Xerox’s clients understand this imperative. “We are changing how we do business to meet their expectations,” he says. “This in turn helps us reach our goals and enables our clients to reach theirs.” To this end, Xerox is helping clients make environmental decisions with its products and services and this is expected to become commonplace, he adds. “Tracking and sharing environmental data will become more important, more complex, but also easier as new tools and solutions are created,” he says. “There are already increased expectations from clients that environmental data is available for our products, and we see this as an opportunity to develop digital tools to address this. Data driven insights on environmental performance of businesses and products will also enable clients to make decisions based on non-financial metrics, which is how we need to think to achieve meaningful Net Zero targets. “We believe our Net Zero target is achievable. There is a lot of work for us to do and technological development is still needed to enable us to meet our target effectively, but that isn’t stopping us from implementing carbon reduction initiatives
Kevin Paterson head of XBS UK and Xerox UK Channel
www.xerox.co.uk/en-gb
“
The science
is clear; if the world doesn’t considerably reduce
greenhouse gas emissions now, we will be in a lot of trouble in the
next few decades.
”
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