Three vendors have been crowned Champions in the 2023 Canalys Global Sustainable Ecosystems Leadership Matrix: HP, Lenovo and Schneider Electric.

Canalys recently published its first Sustainable Ecosystems Leadership Matrix, adding to the series of Leadership Matrix reports designed to highlight leading vendors in key areas of the channel ecosystem. This latest Leadership Matrix revealed the three vendors excelling in their efforts to drive sustainable transformations internally and throughout the channel ecosystem. Achieving Champion status is no small feat as vendors continue to work to meet partners’ and customers’ evolving needs and expectations while sustainability rises to the top of corporate agendas.

Defining Champions and vendor inclusion in the Canalys Sustainable Ecosystems Leadership Matrix

A vendor’s position in the Canalys Sustainable Ecosystems Leadership Matrix is based on channel partner feedback, industry leadership in sustainability and Canalys analyst assessments. Champions have demonstrated the highest levels of excellence in driving the channel ecosystem forward in environmental sustainability specifically while progressing on their own corporate sustainability strategies.

Canalys assessed the 14 leading technology vendors globally, selected for their annual revenue and percentage of business conducted through the channel. Besides the three Champions, other vendors ranked as Contenders (with clear sustainability focus, solid strategies and some solutions for partners), Scalers (with innovative sustainability strategies and portfolios but limited channel leadership) or Foundation (vendors with basic sustainability strategies, low channel engagement and few, if any, sustainability solutions for partners and customers).

Vendors must continue leading the industry towards a more sustainable future

The vendor community has recognized sustainability is integral to corporate agendas – including those of partners, customers and the vendors themselves – for years and decades to come. 2023 continues to present macroeconomic challenges for the industry, but it has also seen some of the most extreme weather events ever recorded, making the need for a more sustainable IT sector even clearer. The largest multinational technology vendors cannot afford to fall behind on their environmental commitments – and they must equip channel partners with the knowledge, tools and solutions to achieve their own sustainability goals.

In turn, the revenue-generating opportunities in sustainability are only becoming clearer for the vendor community, with channel partners showing a clear demand for sustainability solutions and support through partner programs. Partners are turning to the vendor community and expecting sustainability training, incentivized hardware take-back programs and low-carbon software or cloud solutions. Moreover, the channel expects vendors to lead by example and deliver transparent sustainability reports, measurable progress in decarbonizing their supply chains, and diverse portfolios of more sustainable and efficient products and solutions. As sustainability remains a critical consideration for vendors’ many stakeholders – including customers, partners, employees and investors – the vendor community cannot afford to be complacent with its progress so far.

The expectations placed on vendors are very high at this critical moment in the channel’s sustainable transformation, but three vendors have stood out more than any others for their sustainability efforts in 2023. Congratulations go to HP, Lenovo and Schneider Electric for establishing themselves as Champions in Canalys’ first Sustainable Ecosystems Leadership Matrix. HP continues to lead the industry with its Amplify Impact program; it launched its program nearly two years ago and has rolled it out to 3,800 partners globally. Lenovo and Schneider Electric have rapidly developed partner offerings over the last twelve months. All three vendors demonstrated their industry-leading progress in embedding sustainability throughout their organizations and empowering channel partners to follow suit.

For all vendors – but for the Champions especially – maintaining momentum and partner engagement on sustainability will be a key challenge over the next 12 months. The partner ecosystem will expect more from the vendor community as customers become increasingly mindful of sustainability when selecting partners to work with. In addition, rapidly building pressure from global regulators will see partners and customers turn to vendors for transparency on product supply chains and scope 3 emissions, with vendors themselves facing new compliance challenges across major markets and regions.

Moving forward, vendors will need to expand sustainability offerings for partners and customers while maintaining reputations as innovative, responsible and climate-cautious companies. Now is no time for the Champions to become overconfident in their leadership status, as Contenders compete to win the favor of the growing community of sustainability-focused partners.