Swedbank’s values-based, risk assessment approach to IT purchasing led to choice of TCO Certified as sustainability criteria in their purchase of 10 000 notebook computers.

A new report describes the success factors in Swedbank’s systematic approach to incuding sustainability factors in purchasing – from risk assessment, direct dialog with hardware vendors and consistent inclusion of TCO Certified Notebooks as a mandatory requirement.

Swedbank’s goal is to include sustainability factors in all company business decisions and stakeholder interactions. Therefore, they have prioritized the selection of vendors that can deliver products and services that meet their ambitious environmental and social responsibility criteria.

IT purchasing should be a significant part of an organization’s sustainability efforts and contribute to meeting environmental and social targets

The risk assessment used by Swedbank clearly indicated that IT hardware was a risk category from an environmental and social perspective. The risk assessment was able to provide guidance for improvement and led to greater company-wide acceptance for specifying sustainability criteria when purchasing IT devices.

The result of Swedbank’s revised purchasing specifications was that 10 000 TCO Certified notebook computers from Lenovo were selected as they met life cycle criteria for socially responsible manufacturing, user health and safety, ergonomics and the environment.

Outcomes of Swedbank’s sustainable IT purchasing policy:

  • Increased visibility of sustainable IT’s importance in sustainability policies
  • An additional IT brand certifying notebooks to TCO Certified
  • Clear message to IT industry about the importance of certifying products to TCO Certified
  • A finance and insurance industry network working together to drive sustainable IT