Green IT Tops the Agenda: Coca-Cola Enterprises Becomes the First Company to Achieve LEC IT Accreditation in Great Britain

Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) has reinforced its commitment to sustainability as part of its ongoing strategy to achieve industry leading efficiency across its operations by becoming the first company in Great Britain to achieve a Low Energy Company (LEC) IT accreditation.

This week, CCE announced the achievement following a rigorous process first unveiled at the end of 2013. The manufacturer was awarded accreditation after a select group of employees embarked on an IT-focused training course delivered by the Energy Manager’s Association (EMA) and training provider Tivarri.

The course was developed to help IT professionals understand power usage within their organisation and the potential carbon impact of IT systems, in order to implement the changes necessary to make valuable energy and carbon savings. CCE used its experience to support the creation of the curriculum. The course not only develops efficiency knowledge, but trains individuals to conduct thorough energy audits in order to assess the impact and success of any changes made.

CCE’s IT team led the way in undertaking the training, and having successfully achieved accreditation, has become the first company to attain this LEC status. The accreditation was officially presented to CCE at the EMEX conference in London yesterday by Lord Rupert Redesdale.

Once organisations have reached a certain level of training provision from the EMA, which will vary for different industries, they will be audited and listed as LEC compliant. It is hoped that CCE’s move will help to raise awareness of sustainability in IT more broadly, encouraging other organisations to pursue LEC accreditation, as part of a drive to make this a standard of best practice for all businesses.

Kevin Sirjuesingh, Director of Business Process Optimisation, Great Britain, Coca-Cola Enterprises, said: “It is a major achievement to have been awarded this accreditation, and something we regard as a crucial step in our journey towards greener IT. The time has come for IT to increase its focus on the sustainability agenda, and we see this as an important development, both for CCE and broader business world.

“At CCE, our commitment in signing up to the LEC initiative is for the long term. Having achieved accreditation we intend to maintain this standard for our IT function. Not only do we now have a group of dedicated, trained professionals, working towards improving our credentials in sustainable IT, but we will be audited to ensure progress. We have already identified a number of potential measures to improve efficiency, with trials taking place at both the front and back end, with the goal of reducing carbon and costs.”

Lord Rupert Redesdale, CEO of the Energy Managers Association (EMA), added: “As a sector, computing now produces more carbon than the aviation industry, most of which comes from the office space. However, extremely few IT managers have environmental qualifications and most organisations are simply unaware of their footprint in this area. The EMA-led training course and accreditation, which Coca-Cola Enterprises has become the first company to complete, is aimed at addressing this issue. Our hope is that it is the first step towards this level of qualification becoming mandatory for IT managers over the coming years, as it will ultimately help to strengthen their position within organisations.”