OVO Energy

In January 2023 OVO Energy engaged sustainability specialists Px³ Ltd to evaluate the carbon footprint of its IT devices and data centres. 

OVO Energy launched in 2009 and since then has grown to over four million customers, planting a million trees every year to help slow down climate change. In 2019 the company launched its “Plan Zero” designed to make the company a Net Zero carbon business by 2035. The energy company is also committed to helping UK homes on their Path to Zero, with a toolkit of smart technology and advice to help customers reduce their energy bills and carbon footprint. OVO also recently called for a new kitemark system for the green tariff market, helping customers avoid ‘greenwashing’ practices by clearly identifying which tariffs directly support decarbonisation or the generation of renewable energy. OVO Energy won the Sunday Times 2023 award for Best Place to Work for Women for offering forward-thinking policies and better flexibility for everyone to balance work with life and also placed in the Top 10 for Best Places to Work: Very Big Organisation (2,000+ employees).

“Collaborating with Px3 Ltd has empowered us to acquire a depth of understanding that transcends the information typically provided by manufacturers concerning sustainable products. Previously, we were heavily reliant on manufacturers’ claims; now, our approach is more proactive and data-driven.” 

OVO Energy Project Sponsor, James Whitlock, Senior Technology Services Manager

Px³ Ltd used their world leading methodology based on published scientific research and a modelling tool which has been used to calculate the carbon emissions of nearly five million ICT devices in use across 164 countries. 

The results indicated that the annual energy consumption of IT devices at data centres at OVO Energy is responsible for producing nearly 40,000 kg of CO₂e each year. To put that in perspective, it is the equivalent of driving 150,000 miles in an average car, roughly 6 times round the world 

As well as the “scope 2” emissions from the electricity use, Px3 Ltd also calculated the scope 3 “embodied emissions” for OVO Energy’s laptop and desktop devices.  This figure, which includes the manufacturing and shipping of the devices, came to a total of nearly 1.5m metric tonnes of CO₂e, and would require a mature forest of 429 acres, an area the size of nearly 7,000 tennis courts, to remove the annual emissions from the atmosphere. As part of the project Px3 Ltd looked at options and strategies which would help OVO Energy reduce their emissions as part of their overall Carbon Reduction Plan.  Px³ Ltd also provided OVO Energy with unlimited access to its online tools for IT carbon footprint Calculation and sustainable IT device procurement Compare apps.

“We are working diligently this year to ensure that the devices we provide to our staff, as well as our refresh cycles, align with the highest sustainability standards. We’ve been able to actively use the data and tools provided by Px3 Ltd, which has significantly enhanced our ability to monitor and manage our device estate and lifecycle.”

OVO Energy Project Sponsor, James Whitlock, Senior Technology Services Manager

Comments from James Whitlock of OVO Energy on how the report findings and online tools would be used:

“We’ve recently launched a self-service onboarding portal which allows new hires to select their own hardware, we’re planning on adding the carbon emissions data to the portal so that there will be a total carbon cost to their associated bundle as well as packaging and delivery estimates. Our strategic partnership with Px³ Ltd is instrumental in our pursuit of selecting the most environmentally friendly options and demonstrating our dedication to our sustainability commitments – it underscores our commitment to promote a greener and more sustainable future for everyone.”

OVO Energy Project Sponsor, James Whitlock, Senior Technology Services Manager

Px³ and Google show that transforming several thousand Windows computers to Chromebooks using ChromeOS Flex avoided 1.5 million kgCO₂e of IT GHG emissions and saved Strawberry over £5m by reducing new computer procurement and IT related electricity consumption.

The Strawberry group (formerly Nordic Choice Hotels) operates 200+ hotels in five different countries across the Nordic region. Already evaluating ChromeOS Flex and considering its use across the group, in late 2021 the company experienced a serious ransomware virus attack by criminals, rendering the affected Windows computers encrypted and effectively unusable. Faced with the choice of disposing of thousands of notebooks and PCs, Strawberry enlisted the help of Google to convert the estate to Chromebooks using Chrome OS Flex and carbon footprint expert and Px³ CEO Dr Sutton-Parker to determine the GHG abatement and costs avoided by making the more sustainable choice.

Download and read the full case study at Google’s dedicated sustainable IT website https://chromeenterprise.google/os/sustainability/ or see the file below.

‘I really, really like the fact that we can use technology innovation and sustainability together. Working with the research company we have seen that over the next eight years we will save as much as 1.5 million kg of CO2e. That amounts to 2,000 acres of mature forest and saves 20% of the electricity from our computer usage.’

Kjetil Neergaard, Green Tech Manager, Strawberry Group

Watch the case study video here 

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

Citrix is one of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) strategic technology partners. Providing digital workspace and application access solutions to support flexible working Citrix engaged Px³ to undertake a detailed study of the carbon footprint created by the DWP’s end user computing estate. Doing so enabled the DWP to improve the quality of sustainable IT reporting in response to the United Kingdom’s Greening Government

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for welfare, pensions and child maintenance policy. As the UK’s biggest public service department ICT administers the State Pension and a range of working age, disability and ill health benefits to around 20 million claimants and customers.

A major central government department, the DWP is part of the STAR (Sustainable Technology Advisory and Reporting) group and submits an annual report to DEFRA (Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) showing their carbon footprint. In common with most organisations, the DWP was exploring ways to improve the quality of their reporting. This is because the “Greening Government” ICT strategy has increased the focus on sustainable ICT to drive GHG abatement across the public sector.

With nearly 300,000 devices in scope (covering desktops, laptops and monitors) the department was keen to determine both Scope 2 (electricity) and Scope 3 (supply chain) GHG emissions values.

Using the Px³ IT carbon footprint applications platform, the results indicated that devices used at the DWP produce over 1m kgs of CO₂e annually. In context, this is equivalent to GHG emissions caused by driving 4 million miles in an average car and requires a mature forest of over 1,300 acres to remove the carbon from Earth’s atmosphere. Using the same Px³ applications, it was determined that Scope 3 supply chain GHG emissions (computer production, distribution and end of life services) produced of over 90 million kgCO₂e.

“To manage towards a goal of Net Zero emissions we first needed to understand where we are today. This research work by Px³ provides a starting point for us to now aim to drive down the emissions from the DWP IT infrastructure to meet the Greening Government commitments”.

Tony Sudworth, Sustainability Lead, DWP Digital

British Film Institute (BFI)

The British Film Institute (BFI) takes steps to measure and reduce its ICT carbon footprint on the journey to net zero. Conducted by Px³, the study analysed the carbon footprint of onsite computer systems, staff computer electricity GHG emissions and major services suppliers.

Founded in 1933, the British Film Institute (BFI) is a registered charity governed by Royal Charter and the UK’s lead organisation for film and the moving image. A distributor of National Lottery funds, the BFI seeks to support creativity and actively seek out the next generation of UK storytellers. It also promotes the UK’s screen
industries including programmes and festivals while growing and caring for the BFI National Archive, the world’s largest film and television archive.

Having declared a climate and ecological emergency, the BFI has pledged to reduce its emissions to Net Zero, exploring how quickly this can be done across plant, buildings and archives and committing to publishing its plans and progress. Supporting its Digital First strategy, the BFI was keen to examine the emissions
created the use of its information and communications technology (ICT), both by the organisation itself and by some of its key technology suppliers. In order to establish a computer carbon footprint “baseline” assessment, the BFI engaged Px³.

Overall the BFI’s use of ICT is calculated to be responsible for just over 77,000 kgCO₂e of greenhouse gas emissions per annum. This is equivalent to GHG emissions produced by driving an average car over 280,000 miles each year and requires more than 90 acres of mature forest to remove the carbon emissions from Earth’s atmosphere.

Over 95% of the BFI’s emissions were created by the on-site data centres, while one external supplier was notable for creating zero emissions. The BFI has selected Positive Internet to host some of their services and the organisation is based in a carbon negative business park, drawing their power directly from wind farms on the Cambridgeshire fens.

“On our journey to zero carbon, we are continuously looking to reduce our emissions in all activity areas. We were mindful that digital activity is only set to grow and that we were about to embark on essential digital upgrades. Establishing where our largest impacts were, ahead of this work, has helped inform the digital strategy going forward. Our thanks to Px³ for assisting us with this important piece of work.”

Frank Horn, BFI Sustainability Lead

Royal Borough of Kingston and Sutton Council

The Royal Borough of Kingston and Sutton Council chose ChromeOS and Acer Chromebooks to accelerate progress on local sustainability goals. Px³ produced detailed findings about the link between the devices’ energy savings and driving climate action.

Note: The following is written by David Grasty, the Corporate Head of Digital Strategy & Portfolio at Kingston council in Southwest London. The blog can also be seen here.

To fight climate change on a global level, we have to start in our home boroughs. Both the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames and the London Borough of Sutton declared a climate emergency in 2019, so bringing sustainability to every daily activity is critical. We need partners that understand our goal. Since Google has committed to operating its business on carbon-free energy 24/7 by 2030, Chrome OS, Android Enterprise and Acer Chromebooks are the perfect partners. Committing to sustainability is very important, but it has to be done in a way that doesn’t hinder service to our communities. We’ll adopt low-energy devices and resource-saving productivity apps that help keep employees productive.

The devices we chose had to meet our objective to give employees an “any device, anywhere, anytime” experience. They also had to reduce our carbon footprint within our borough offices—for example, reducing energy consumption and sparing us costly and wasteful IT upgrades. We’ve also made a commitment to close one of our data centers by late 2022, and we knew that shifting to the cloud would play a large part in the sustainability program. Our 5,000 council employees were already using Google Workspace apps, and accessing our borough applications through Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop.

As my colleague Jason Sam-Fat, the borough’s Digital and IT Commercial Manager, points out, we had to be practical as we studied which devices would contribute to both sustainability and usability. Fortunately, we had the numbers to show the expected sustainability improvements of our top choice, Acer Chromebook Spin 513 with LTE. Our partner Px³ produced detailed findings about the link between the devices’ energy savings. 

“We received clear metrics from actual energy usage. That way, we have a level of assurance and confidence that we can validate our sustainability objectives.”

Jason Sam-Fat, Digital and IT Commercial Manager, Royal Borough of Kingston and Sutton Council

The Acer CP5-417 Chromebook devices met our sustainability objectives. The latest LTE-enabled Acer Chromebook Spin 513 version that we’ve aligned to further supports our objectives while adding flexibility for employees.  “The Acer Chromebooks are 46 percent more energy efficient than the alternatives in the market,” Jason explains, citing findings from sustainable IT consultancy Px³, which partnered with Kingston and Sutton. “And they have 14 hours of battery life.” That’s something employees really enjoy, since they don’t have to search for electric outlets when they’re in the middle of projects.

The sustainability reporting from Px³ benchmarked a 32 percent reduction in energy with the move to Citrix and Acer Chromebooks—building on previous Px³ research by Dr Sutton-Parker about ChromeOS and energy savings. If you combine this with the resulting reduced levels of commuting by employees, you would need 3,700 acres of mature forest, roughly one and a half times the size of London’s Richmond Park, to remove the equivalent amount of pollution from the atmosphere. The combination of Citrix and Acer Chromebooks will help us make steady progress toward sustainability for years to come. Our previous devices used a lot more computing power than we needed, given our growing reliance on cloud apps. With Chrome OS devices, we can better take advantage of moving the actual computing tasks to the cloud, which is a less energy-intensive way of working.

We’re pleased that we can make progress toward sustainability goals while we also free up employees to travel around the boroughs as needed, Acer Chromebooks in hand. We gave Chromebooks to people who generally do desk work but like the flexibility to work at home. For employees who meet with residents in the community, Acer Chromebooks also allow them to undertake tasks that they need to do there and then, rather than taking notes and then coming back to an office to update records. All of our staff can access their council systems on their own phones using Android Enterprise with work profiles, which keeps their work data separate from their personal data. With work profiles, our IT team can still manage the work data and keep it secure. The pandemic brought home the flexibility of our Chromebooks and digital architecture. In March 2020, once the decision was made to switch to remote work, we had 90 percent of employees working from home the next day. 

“If we hadn’t had the Chromebooks in place, our remote-work situation would have looked very, very different,” says Steve O’Connor, our Chief Digital Information Officer. “Because we seamlessly moved so many people to remote work literally overnight, it meant that meetings scheduled for the next day still took place.”

As Jason explains, seeing the remote-work experience play out has helped us think about other ways to improve sustainability, such as reducing employee commutes. “Having the right technology, like the Acer Chromebooks, is crucial to our entire journey,” Jason says. “It’s helped us make better decisions around IT, and it will definitely help to define how we can better incorporate sustainability. It’s about continuing to build on what we’ve got, and improving it.”