Going Green in Outsourcing
Source: FSOutsourcing

The mantra of going green is fast catching up in the outsourcing world. A survey conducted among 120,000 outsourcing users, as given in the 2007 Green Outsourcer Report, clearly demonstrates outsourcing going the environment friendly way. Among the companies surveyed, an astonishing 43 percent responded that they would consider environmental factors when choosing outsourcing suppliers for the first time. Overall, close to 90 percent of the respondents said that the environmental commitment of suppliers would influence their outsourcing selection process.

As environmental sustainability moves to the global forefront, enterprises are facing increasing social and political pressure to adopt more environment friendly business practices. Besides focusing on critical business components such as lowering TCO, increasing ROI, retaining and managing customer base, and achieving economies of scale, businesses are now looking for solutions that can enable them to reduce or optimize their energy consumption. Active participation can be seen among Public companies, the reason being the pressure from investors and consumers to be more accountable toward the environment. According to the report, more than 94 percent executives from publicly traded companies are considering adding "green" clauses in their renegotiation processes compared with only 36 percent from private companies.

The guilt of committing antienvironment activities has driven a large number of suppliers and outsourcing service providers to adopt green outsourcing. This measure will put a check to overconsumption of energy, improper waste disposal, nonadherence to recycling norms, and the use of hazardous materials. The problem is much graver in developing countries. Leading outsourcing destinations such as India and China are already facing environmental issues on a large scale. Their big stride in the outsourcing domain has conveniently led them to bypass environmental laws.