However, “green” can be a valuable addition to your marketing strategy, giving you a competitive edge by speaking to the unique concerns of your environmentally savvy—and cost conscious—customers. Whether it’s a genuine desire on your customers’ part to limit their environmental impact, cut costs or generate some good old-fashioned PR, there is clear value for you to embrace the greening of IT.

Customers are much more aware of green issues—it’s on everyone’s mind,” says Kenneth Dominguez, Integration Specialist, Ocean Computer Group. “Of course pricing is important to SMBs, but they are also increasingly looking for eco-friendly solutions they can feel good about. Demonstrating how our solutions are green helps us differentiate ourselves.” Ocean Computer Group, established in 1985, sells midrange, networking and managed services solutions.

A Greener Bottom Line

Convincing a customer of the value of looking at waste in their business is easy. The average desktop PC wastes half of the energy it consumes, according to the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, created by Google and Intel in 2007. Utilizing a computer’s energy-saving features can save more than $60 a year in energy costs and reduce CO2 emissions by nearly half a ton. Multiply those savings by the number of PCs your customer has to demonstrate how a seemingly small change can make a triple-digit difference for the environment—and their electric bills.

While some customers may not be keen on refreshing their current technology just yet, a great opportunity to help them boost efficiency is to suggest buying eco-friendly when it is time to replace their hardware. According to Gartner, Inc., a more eco-friendly PC can reduce power consumption by 20 percent or more, usually for less than $20 extra per unit. Savings on power bills quickly make up for the initial premium, pushing the ROI into the green.

Virtualization is another route you can take customers. Server consolidation works to save your customer money in several ways. Energy costs are reduced due to the lower number of machines being used, as well as a result of the reduced need for air conditioning to cool rooms heated by the machines.

Appealing to Your Customers’ Eco-Conscience

Even if your customer’s top priority is price, eco-friendliness may be their second. A green pitch can help you differentiate your business from a competitors’ if your pricing is the same. Awareness of green issues is coming to the forefront in business. Garter projects this awareness will gain momentum and expand through the rest of this year in all sectors of business. To keep up, software publishers and hardware manufacturers are taking steps to ensure their products fit into an eco-conscious world.

Software publishers have a running start over hardware manufacturers since software is inherently ‘green’ thanks to digital distribution. When you send a customer a license key to download their software, you’re also saving money on shipping the product, there’s no fuel used to move it and no materials that could end up in a landfill are used—it’s a win-win situation for the customer, your business and the environment.”

With the state of the economy in a downturn, customers will be more likely to hear out a telecommuting or teleconferencing pitch. With a reliable and high-quality system in place, companies have the opportunity to save on fuel and plane tickets.

“Saving the world may not be SMB businesses’ main goal, but the green angle does help push them over the edge sometimes,” says Dominguez. “Video conferencing technology, like our LifeSize solution, has improves communication and helps bring in remote locations. Monetarily, the benefits are twofold: the company saves on travel and fuel costs, and it also improves efficiency by eliminating the downtime associated with being out of the office.”

When it comes to hardware, it’s safe to assume most of your customers know they shouldn’t toss old batteries in the trash. Take the time to remind them that many IT products contain dangerous chemicals and metals that can also pose a hazard if placed in landfills. Old hardware also may contain valuable metals, such as silver and gold, that can be recycled rather than extracted via mining, which is more ecologically hazardous than recycling. The hazardous chemicals in hardware are a veritable laundry list of toxic and noxious materials, including: arsenic, brominated flame retardants, cadmium, decabromodiphenyl ether, hexavalent chromium, lead, mercury, PVC (polyvinyl chloride). The European Union’s RoHS Directive (a restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment) has banned many chemicals that are still legal in the U.S. As a result, many vendors have either eliminated them from their products or have a plan in place to phase them out over the next couple of years.

Data centers are one area that is ripe for greening. U.S. data centers account for 1.2 percent of this country’s entire power draw, according to Lawrence Berkeley Labs, and is projected to balloon to 2.3 percent by 2010. U.S. data centers create two percent of greenhouse gases, which is equivalent to the amount created by the aviation industry. If every VAR in this country recommended minor upgrades to their data centers, this projection can be prevented from becoming reality. Customers who are not tech-savvy may not realize how much of their own power draw—and power bill—is due to inefficiencies in their data center. Write up a proposal, outlining some quick fixes that will lead to a diminished use of electricity.

Help Uncle Sam Go Green

Businesses aren’t the only potential market for a green pitch. In fact, the government is actually required to meet certain criteria when it comes to buying greener IT products. According to the Consortium for Energy Efficiency, in addition to the 50 state governments there are 3,043 county, 19,279 city and 16,656 town governments. The total annual energy-related expenditures for these entities amounts to $12 billion in energy bills and an additional $50 – $70 billion for energy-related products.

The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) posits that, “Section 104 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-58) requires agencies to purchase ENERGY STAR®-qualified or FEMP-designated products when procuring energy-consuming products. Companies selling energy-efficient and green products and services have a special opportunity in the federal sector.” FEMP helps government buyers meet the requirements set by the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 2005 and Executive Order 13423 and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. While these acts are available in full online, a quick visit to FEMP’s and ENERGY STAR’s Web sites yields recommendations on a variety of IT products, including computers, monitors, printers and copiers. Creating total solutions for government agencies comprised of products specifically cherry-picked to fulfill government regulations is a winning strategy.

Adds Dominguez, “We’re working with a government agency here in New Jersey that has funds allocated specifically for green initiatives. It’s a niche right now, but the opportunities will be increasing as more funds are earmarked for these eco-friendly kinds of solutions.”

Team Up to Reinforce Your Message

Pitching products and services as “green” isn’t just beneficial for resellers—in fact, vendor partners are leading the way. Many vendors provide their partner program members with free marketing and sales collateral and tools. Look for marketing with a green focus and leverage the power of all of the advertising that the vendor has been doing for that campaign. It’d be nearly impossible for an SMB VAR to buy or build the goodwill a multi-billion dollar IT manufacturer has with the American public. Peruse manufacturer Web sites—nearly every company devotes space to address the need for eco-friendly computing.

Get paid to take out the trash. At the end of the product lifecycle, your customers will be looking for a quick, easy and hopefully green way to dispose of their IT products. Many vendors have programs in place in which they will give you cash—or credit toward a product update—to recycle outdated hardware or printer cartridges. It’s worth the few minutes it takes to include this kind of offer on your Web site and in your marketing. Many of your customers will be happy to get these kinds of items off their hands with an assurance that the items will be recycled.

Through Tech Data’s exclusive RecycleToday and RecycleTomorrow programs, provided by partner AnythingIT, you could reap 30-point profit margins and put IT recycling services on your businesses’ linecard.

“Using AnythingIT through Tech Data, resellers can help their government end users meet regulations,” says AnythingIT Account Manager Crystal Leatherberry. “We hold a GSA contract, have contracts with many vendors and we maintain a zero landfill policy. Our service provides end users with a secure and environmentally friendly way to recycle and dispose of their e-waste. It's a revenue opportunity for VARs that's also a good way to help the planet."

Staying Ahead of the Game

There are plenty of opportunities for businesses to become better poised to save money, reduce waste and prepare for a greener future.

Investigate some of the ways you can pitch eco-friendly solutions to your customers and watch the competition turn green with envy.