The IT industry stands to profit significantly by selling energy efficient tech solutions to reduce greenhouse gases, yet has been dramatically outspent and mostly silent in support of strong climate policies in the United States or internationally.  Instead, IT companies continue to fund the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's regressive and destructive stance on climate issues, even when unaligned with their own climate policies. 

“Apple’s recent bold move to leave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its obstruction of government efforts to address climate change contrasts strongly with its competitors Google, Microsoft and IBM’s relative inaction at this crucial juncture for our climate,” said Casey Harrell, Greenpeace International's IT industry analyst.  “IT companies can and should publicly and demonstratively call for a change in the Chamber's position on climate or leave the Chamber altogether.” 

Companies’ clear public support for strong emissions reductions is a key scoring criteria on Greenpeace’s leaderboard, along with the company’s measurable, economy-wide climate solutions, as well as concrete efforts to reduce their own emissions. IBM, HP and Fujitsu occupy the top 3 places in this assessment, but no company scores above 50 out of a possible 100. Google-a new addition-comes in at number four, scoring 32. 

The Smart 2020 report (www.smart2020.org) commissioned by the IT industry itself, clearly outlines how IT solutions have the potential to cut global GHG emissions by a remarkable 15 percent by 2020. 

“Even though the IT industry will profit from strong emissions reduction targets, disappointingly, it is not even close to its potential of leading the way to a low carbon economy,” added Harrell.. “IT giants like Microsoft, Google and IBM need to put their weight behind a strong deal at Copenhagen now, or else the world will lose out again to dirty industry’s negative lobbying and the U.S. Chamber’s campaign to deny sound science and public support for progress.” 

IBM holds the top spot on the leaderboard due to an extensive range of climate solutions and action to reduce its own emissions, but is only one point ahead of HP, which has improved greatly since the last Greenpeace assessment in May. Both HP and Toshiba show strong progress by providing more comprehensive information on how their climate solutions can reduce global emissions. Dell, Nokia and Sony all failed to show significant improvement in their scores since May 2009.  

Google has clearly set out a plan for reducing emissions by 2030 but is has not yet spoken up on the need for a strong global deal at Copenhagen. The CEO of Ericsson has made prominent speeches on the urgency of climate change and the importance of Copenhagen, but the leaders of Nokia, Dell, Microsoft and Sony, among others stay silent on the most urgent issue facing the planet. 

Sharp stands out as the only Japanese company to indicate support for the strong reduction target of the new Japanese Government. Panasonic, new to the leaderboard assessment, can increase its score on several criteria for the next assessment. 

The next edition of the Cool IT leaderboard, with several new companies, will be released in early 2010.