IBM Goes Greener for Earth Day

Timed perfectly with Earth Day, IBM's procurement arm has come out with a bold effort requiring its 30,000 suppliers in 60 countries  to advance their sustainability efforts.  More specifically, IBM’s suppliers are now required to:

• define, deploy, and sustain a management system that addresses corporate responsibility, including supplier conduct and environmental protection;
• measure performance and establish voluntary, quantifiable environmental goals;
• publicly disclose results associated with these voluntary environmental goals and other environmental aspects of their management systems

While no deadline has been put in place, John Paterson, IBM's CPO hopes to have compliance by 2011.  And when you have more than $30 billion in spend you have the weight to toss around to make it happen.  I think John says it best in this quote in the NY Times, “Ultimately, if a supplier cannot be compliant with requirements on the environment and sustainability, we’ll stop doing business with them,” he said

For more news on this announcement check out:

IBM to Suppliers: Embrace Sustainability...Or Else

Smarter Sustainability - Q&A with Wayne Balta, IBM’s VP of corporate environmental affairs and product safety

Chameleon Billboard Teaches about Smarter Supply Chains

Color Sensitive Interactive Billboard from milton cj on Vimeo.

This billboard, using sensors and LEDs acts like a chameleon and changes its color, urges viewers to consider how technology could improve supply chains.