Audio transcript:

Working Toward Sustainability With Acer and ChromeOS

Jillian

Hello, welcome. Welcome to another episode of Insight TechTalk. You know sustainability has really become a growing conversation these days, earth day was not that long ago which is a great reminder but hopefully not the last reminder that sustainability really needs to be more at the forefront of all of our business conversations from the operations that we run to the purchasing decisions that we make. We're seeing it increasingly become part of the consideration criteria from businesses and organizations are finding multiple ways to benefit from sustainability inside and out. We know that our clients are looking inward to find ways to infuse their business model with eco-friendly operations and technology. We're doing the same thing here at Insight and we're really inspired and grateful for our partners. And these are the technology brands who are really standing up exemplary and sustainability initiatives. And we have one such partner here on the show today, So without further ado let me introduce you to our guest today, this is Nidhi Nayyar Tassone, director of commercial marketing at Acer. Nidhi welcome to the show.

Nidhi

Thank you, Jillian thank you so much for having me for this very important conversation.

Jillian

Absolutely, I know you have a lot to tell us but I'm really interested. I know our audiences want to know what are the conversations that are happening? What are you observing or hearing from customers around sustainability in their product choices?

Nidhi

I'm glad you asked, sustainability and making positive impacts for our climate is top of mind for all of our customers that we talk to. There's an increase in awareness and demand for sustainably manufactured products. Companies have a lot of CSR initiatives which is carpet social responsibility. We have a lot of customers who have implemented ESG policies which is environmental social governance policies where they're looking to source products, they're trying to source products which help them with their ESG goals and making a positive impact on the environment while also looking to achieve some cost savings. To give an example here, if I may, we have a customer in Europe, and they went about to secure products as their teams were moving to a hybrid work environment.

And for that reason, one of their extremely important criteria in addition to the product reliability and all those other things, was making sure they reduce their carbon footprint and also making sure they have long device life cycles so that they reduce wasteful IT upgrades and make a positive impact towards e-waste. It was interesting because as they went about this project, we were fortunate to be able to work with them and with their Acer Chromebooks. They were able to get a 32% reduction in the energy usage with their move to Acer Chromebooks as they found out and these are certain research statistics, we have that the Acer Chromebooks were about 46% more efficient than the alternatives in the market. So, we are seeing a lot of customers that definitely are doing their part and want to do their part in terms of having positive impact and making positive change in regards to sustainability.

Jillian

I love that. And I love that it really is a double benefit impact, right? It's not just about making a purchase decision that yes...

Nidhi

Not at all

Jillian

For the environment but also like you are seeing the numbers, you're seeing the energy efficiencies, you're seeing the cost and savings. So that's all, you know, what better reason to make these sustainable choices, right?

Nidhi

Absolutely.

Jillian

So, the challenge I guess, for manufacturers like Acer or any of our other partners, like how do you answer this call? I mean, how are you sustaining this demand for products that not only really serve the high demands of your users but also have the sustainability factor built in?

Nidhi

Well, sustainability is a key pillar for Acer and ChromeOS as the threat for climate and environmental change grows more urgent, sustainability has become a more pressing concern for both end users and companies. So, combining the energy efficiency of ChromeOS devices, and also our consideration of environmental factors at every stage of device lifecycle, the Acer ChromeOS devices are manufactured to make our lives easier as well as protecting the environment. We collectively recognize the greater need of retaining environmental resources to preserve and protect our earth essentially, our planet, where we all live and grow.

Jillian

Yeah, you can't really argue against that. And the sustainability efforts, they're not just limited to the products that you make, It also shows up in the actions and investments of the business. That's why this is so important for companies today and why we're hearing it in client conversations. You know the theme of Earth Day 2022 was invest in our planet. So, I'm curious what investments in progress has Acer, you mentioned Google and ChromeOS, what have you made in protecting the environment?

Nidhi

I'm glad you asked. At Acer we've been raising awareness of climate change and making a significant impact on building a greener environment. Our latest ChromeOS devices meet the energy star 8.0 certification, along with EPEAT registry and for our latest metrics from our Chrome product leads, more than 7.6 million ChromeOS devices have been shipped globally using PCR plastics which PCR is again, post-consumer recycled plastics. And that has reduced the use of virgin plastic in product packaging by 60%, which is a significant number. Now our consideration of environmental factors at every stage of the device life cycle includes design of easily recycled products with sustainable materials, managing waste and chemicals in the production process, making sure we are optimizing all our logistics to reduce carbon emissions, eco-friendly extended use packaging is extremely important for us, and we also provide product recycling opportunities for our customers. Keeping all of this in mind actually is it has been recognized by multiple industry organizations. for our efforts. We received a silver class distinction for the second year in the S and P Global Sustainability 2022 yearbook which features only the top ESG scoring companies. We have also been listed in the MSCI ESG leaders indexes for the eighth year and in 2021, Acer was ranked among the hundred most sustainably managed companies in the world by the Wall Street Journal.

However, I also want to make sure I emphasize all the efforts and impact by ChromeOS and overall, by Google because it is a joint collaboration in terms of making sure we are doing our positive part for sustainability. So, ChromeOS supports Google's mission with an energy efficient operating system. ChromeOS devices are built with sustainability in mind and consume as much as 46% less energy than comparable devices. Also, to talk a little bit about ChromeOS' partner company, right? Google in 2007 became the first major company to become carbon neutral which is huge. They're ahead of time, in terms of making sure they're leading the path on this. In 2017, Google became the first major company to match 100% of its annual electricity consumption with renewable energy. In 2019, they made the largest corporate purchase of renewable energy in history. And in 2020, they were the first major company to neutralize its energy legacy, carbon emissions. So just the partnership and collaboration here enables Google ChromeOS, Acer to provide more sustainable solutions

Jillian

Just, you know, no big deal, no big deal. Honestly, at first though, congratulations. You've rattled off a lot of accolades and that's great, but really the fact that all of those accolades truly demonstrate the efforts, the investment, obviously the leadership that Acer believes in these initiatives, believes that this is a topic that needs to be addressed. So congratulations all the way around. I love that you mentioned the collaboration because that is so, like kind of part and parcel to how this works, right? None of us can do this alone, it's little by little. It's swapping out some of those products, some of those plastics with the recycled plastics. It's having those devices recycle programs, e-recycling is really starting to kind of catch on as something that we all need to participate more in, something that we offer here at Insight. So that collaboration piece really is huge. We've got a lot of goals here at insight. I want to know what are the long-term visions and initiatives with respect to sustainability that you have over at Acer? Again, we've kind of talked about the collaboration how are those complimented by the Google sustainability initiatives and by ChromeOS?

Nidhi

Absolutely, I'm happy to share. At Acer this is a major strategic initiative for us and with that we actually have launched something called Earthion which is the name of our sustainability initiative and it's a long term objective for us. Just to elaborate a little more about Earthion, it's a platform for us that combines the strength of Acer as an organization, its supply chain partners and our customers and their employees. Earthion is a blend of the words earth and mission and this is the name Acer has created to represent its mission to help tackle environmental challenges through innovative and integrated solutions. Just, you know, some of the initiatives that roll up under our global Earthion platform are to reach 60% renewable energy by 2025 and 100% renewable energy by 2035 with Acer's commitment in joining the RE100 initiative. I've mentioned PCR, plastic content and having products with PCR, plastic contents already. And our goal is to have 30% PCR plastic in all our core products by 2025.

We also want to make sure we are working with suppliers and having them aligned with us in our sustainability initiative. Our goal is to have 80% of our critical suppliers committed to RE100 by 2025. In terms of product, we expect our products to consume 45% less energy by 2025 and something that we've already achieved and I'm extremely proud of is that 100% of our notebook packaging is made from sustainable materials already as of today. And again, you talked about our collaboration which again is so key as you said. This cannot be done alone or by one person, this needs to be a joint effort by everyone involved. So speaking of how ChromeOS compliments us in all of this. ChromeOS is a sustainable platform by design it supports a cloud close platform to lower carbon footprints, as well as optimal power management capabilities, the ChromeOS devices. I think you mentioned this before consume 46% less energy. And we have done some research where it says switching 1000 computers to Chromebooks reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 90%, which I think is a huge thing. And you know, another aspect to all of this is device sharing. With Chrome and ChromeOS you can share devices easily and allows the easy recycling of devices which minimizes e-waste. So just some of the things that I think are key in terms of our long-term objectives and making sure this is something that we stay on path with.

Jillian

It's a firm list for sure. Those are a lot of ambitious goals and here at Insight right now we are all about being ambitious. We love to see the ambitious enthusiasm from our partners in this arena. But I want to know what's, additionally just from like buying the right purchases, how can we help our clients also be ambitious about sustainability, what can we do to help them kind of level up? Because everybody's got ambitious goals around sustainability right now, which is great. So how can we help organizations take advantage of this?

Nidhi

Absolutely, and you know we do have some resources for our partners and customers that we are absolutely happy to share. When you conduct a device lifecycle refresh, Insight is a great resource for finding secure and convenient ways to recycle electronic waste. Acer also has a very unique program, the Acer Take Back recycling program that enables our partners to recycle their older devices at no cost. And we are happy to connect with any partners that are interested in this program and connect them to local agencies where they can take their older devices to recycle. Adding to this, how ChromeOS compliments this, it is an eco-friendly investment, ChromeOS and it is designed to minimize cost and energy consumption over time. By making the switch to ChromeOS we have seen these businesses can save up to $480 per device in reduced deployment, upgrade and training costs which factors into the total cost of ownership for all our customers. Also, I would like to say that Acer and ChromeOS are very committed to making positive changes for our environment. You know our changing environment is causing extreme environmental and weather conditions all over the world and the impact on our society is increasing day by day. As the net zero carbon emission policies of various countries become increasingly clear, they also bring about the code systems of more challenges and opportunities, opportunities to rethink and improve our ways and inspire innovation with more eco-friendly products in supply chain management. I want to say that Acer and ChromeOS are committed to driving the systemic change from cradle to grave with mindfulness and innovation at every stage of the life cycle for Acer ChromeOS devices.

Jillian

Love it, love it. Thank you Nidhi, I think we've learned so much. I honestly had no idea just the tremendous amount of work that Acer was doing specifically in this area. And I think it's a little encouraging to know that it's all the way down in the details of the packaging, of the transportation, the supply chain. So that's very inspiring. I know there's even more information on this topic to help organizations really leverage these benefits. Again, seeing that double whammy of both, you know sustainability and the cost factor, the gains. So you do have a tech journal article all around sustainability from Acer and then I'd also encourage our listeners to check out our recycling page on insight.com. You can find some of those resources that you'd mentioned you need to help kind of with that e-recycling process. So thank you again so much for your time today, I really appreciate your insights.

Nidhi

Absolutely, thank you for having me, Jillian, I appreciate it.

Jillian

Absolutely, and we'll catch you next time.