OREANDA-NEWS. Fujitsu announces that Meridian Energy has achieved Global Best Practice in ICT Sustainability with a benchmark score of 81.1, ranking it among the top six per cent of companies worldwide in Fujitsu’s Global ICT Sustainability Benchmark.

Meridian engaged Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand Sustainability Consultants to measure its ICT sustainability based on Fujitsu’s Global ICT Sustainability Benchmark methodology and to develop an improvement plan that would place it in line with global best practice.

As New Zealand’s largest electricity generator, Meridian Energy generates electricity from renewable resources and provides electricity to more than 270,000 customer connections (ICPs) in New Zealand through the Meridian and Powershop brands. In line with its focus on providing renewable energy, the company places a strong emphasis on adopting sustainable practices across all areas of its business.

Glen McLatchie, Meridian’s General Manager of Information and Communication Technology, says it’s critically important for Meridian to set an example for customers across all areas of sustainability. “As ICT is traditionally a heavy user of energy, we needed to ensure that we were adopting best practices in this area. Fujitsu assisted us in determining how we were positioned and what we needed to do to be one of the best in our field worldwide.

Carolyn Algar, Meridian’s ICT Business Solutions Manager said “after facilitating a one-day workshop, Fujitsu helped us to define a suitable pathway that consisted of eight key initiatives, with the main focus of integrating sustainability into everyday practices and developing an ICT sustainability guideline. It was important that we got the whole company behind the project, so we set up a working group that met on a regular basis to monitor progress towards our goals. We also built the objective of achieving worldwide best practice in ICT sustainability into personal KPIs across the organisation.”

When Fujitsu conducted a further benchmark assessment in August 2013, Meridian achieved a score of 81.1, which places it in the top six per cent of companies worldwide in Fujitsu’s Global ICT Sustainability Benchmark including Disney, McGraw –Hill Publishing and a UK Government Department.

Lee Stewart, Head of Sustainability for Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand, says “it was a pleasure working with Meridian to help it achieve its goal of being a world leader in ICT Sustainability. The project team embraced the objective and was able to implement the initiatives required to achieve such a great result. It is clear that as an organisation Meridian is passionate about adopting sustainable practices across all areas of its business.”

Jo Healey, Managing Director of Fujitsu New Zealand, said: “Meridian has been a key customer and partner for Fujitsu for a number of years. It is extremely encouraging that as an organisation we can bring our global sustainability experience and expertise to NZ to benefit our local customers. We look forward to our continued relationship with Meridian and also helping our other customers achieve global best practice in ICT Sustainability.”