How Steel City Consulting is Leading the Charge in Sustainable IT Solutions: An Interview with Dan Birch

Interviewer: Why has Steel City Consulting decided to focus on sustainability and green IT practices?

Dan Birch: It is something that I have been passionate about since the birth of my son William, and like any new parent it got me thinking about the world I wanted him to live in. William was born only a week after the COP26 conference in Glasgow. The COP26 conference highlighted how much damage we were doing to our planet and that got me thinking about how much e-waste the IT industry is currently producing (53.6 million tonnes of e-waste are produced globally each year). I decided then that we would make a concerted effort to focus on sustainability and green practices for the business moving forward.

Interviewer: Since then, what has the business done to become more environmentally friendly, and what sustainable practices have been introduced?

Dan Birch: We started by evaluating and overhauling our own internal practices to minimize e-waste. We transitioned to digital documents and cloud storage solutions like SharePoint to reduce paper usage. We eliminated single-use items within the company, opting for recyclable or biodegradable packaging materials instead. Additionally, we consolidated our supplier list, choosing those who offer drop ship models and provide a drop ship service ourselves. This approach not only reduces the carbon footprint by minimizing transport miles but also streamlines the delivery process.

Interviewer: And you are now actively working with customers to lower their CO2 emissions?

Dan Birch: Absolutely. We have decided to work exclusively with vendors who have made a commitment to sustainability, which included Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper. These vendors have excellent refurbishment programs, offering products that are not only cost-effective, but are just as good as new retail in terms of condition and warranty. We actively promote these programs to our customers, enabling them to make informed decisions when buying hardware that help reduce their CO2 emissions.

Interviewer: Are there any other programmes you are actively looking to introduce, or currently offering to your customers?

Dan Birch: We provide our own refurbished IT programme where we fully test hardware, upgrade software and provide equipment with a 1-year warranty on all of our refurbished products. Much of the refurbished IT we currently stock is purchased from the end user during infrastructure upgrades, which not only helps them save money when upgrading, but also ensures that IT equipment stays out of a landfill and in circulation for longer. We also look to use extended hardware warranties and break-fix support to help ensure IT equipment can be supported with software updates, technical support and hardware replacement long after the original hardware warranty has ended.

Interviewer: So, you are actively trying to keep equipment in circulation for longer rather than encouraging customers to upgrade?

Dan Birch: Absolutely! We provide multiple services and solutions for keeping equipment in circulation for longer.

Often the equipment doesn’t need to be completely upgraded and we can help extend the lifecycle of your equipment by refreshing components. For example, upgrading the server memory and HDDs can make a big difference to the running of a machine for relatively low cost.

We take a holistic approach to this and use tools such as Cloud Physics and VMware vRealise to help with a deep dive into a client’s estate and diagnose what is currently working well and what could be improved through repair/replacement, or by upgrading the software or smaller components. This works particularly well when combined with taking additional support through our extended warranties and break-fix support programmes.

Interviewer: Is there anything else you think customers need to know about upgrading their IT, or keeping it in circulation for longer?

Dan Birch: We take a consultancy approach to upgrading IT hardware. Sometimes it makes more sense for the customer to upgrade to newer hardware version, and this can not only improve performance but also help to lower carbon emissions through technology advancements such as better power consumption and cooling techniques. However, other times we can help to extend the life of your machine. I believe that having a well-designed refresh strategy can help to ensure customers save a lot of money and keep equipment in circulation for longer. We are continuously looking at ways to use technology to help lower energy consumption, such as intelligent PDUs which provide advanced management of power usage and seeing where we can virtualize hardware to improve performance.

In summary we provide well designed service for reducing CO2 emissions and reducing energy consumption. When it is time to upgrade we can ensure that our clients do so in the most environmentally friendly way possible disposing of IT correctly and ensuring the replacements are sourced from environmentally conscious suppliers.

Interviewer: It’s clear that you’re making significant strides in helping businesses reduce their carbon footprint while maintaining performance and cost-efficiency. Thank you, Dan, for sharing Steel City Consulting’s journey and insights into sustainable IT practices.

Dan Birch: Thank you. It’s been a pleasure to share what we’re doing, and I hope more businesses will join us in making IT more sustainable.

Interviewer: We look forward to seeing what Steel City Consulting achieves in the future. Thanks again!