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Cheaters Never Win

featured-aeiforaHave you heard?! Volkswagen got caught cheating on emissions tests. If you don’t know the story, basically a European clean air watchdog group looking at variations in emissions tests wanted to put to bed that VW’s diesel models were a great example of clean diesel transportation. To do this they partnered with their United States counterpart as it was felt the US emissions standards were more stringent thereby a successful test would prove their case. Not only did it backfire, but Volkswagen also admitted to installing a “defeat device” software packet into over half a million cars from 2009-2015 that automatically cheated US air pollution tests. Now they are facing billions in fines, crushing stock losses, a halt on US expansion plans, and the potential of not having any of their new vehicles certified for sale in the US.

The take away here is green washing at its finest. We have all seen a race to become “greener” than your competitor in the last several years but there needs to be merit to the data and claims and certainly cheating the system will ultimately backfire. As more and more technology gets integrated into the built environment we have to understand the methodology and metrics of claims of a product or process being green and manufacturers need to be transparent and complete about their products capabilities.

Although not specifically green technology, Extron Electronics provides a pretty good example and attitude towards transparency and metrics with its True4K Specification. This specification covers resolution, frame rate, color sampling and color bit depth in a straight forward manner that lets the consumer understand and evaluate their products based on key metrics that are important to a successful utilization. What is noteworthy is their True4K Spec is not making specific claims about their products but instead outlines (based on industry standards and metrics) what 4K technology is based on those four factors.

Similar, Crestron has made headlines by announcing itself as a third-part certifier of 4K UHD products which many manufacturers are happy to cooperate and submit their products for certification. This is based on their experience of being on the bleeding edge of the HDMI switching and distribution technology front with DigitalMedia and the challenges they felt in running ahead of the pack. To both of these companies and others in the market, transparency and protocol that can be reproducible by others is what is making this a success.

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Defining green specs and following green protocols can be a daunting task by many but taking the “me too” attitude and saying “trust us” is being more heavily scrutinized in the wake of more public faux-pas like Volkswagens. A large part of this is a smarter, more informed consumer with ready access to information via the Internet. As products continue to flood the market in the ICT industry that are able to control the environment in a potentially energy efficient way, manufacturers might want to take cues from these lessons in how information has been handled and processes/protocols deployed.

Manufacturers should consider what defines expectations by the end user and show actual metrics of how they have achieved this. If they fall short it may be an opportunity to improve their product and they may be able to outline that process to the customer for future purchases. The action of not including information because it does not measure up to those expectations can, like with VW, backfire in ways that can cause potential customers from not trusting a company or products impacting their business and reputation. There certainly may be aspects of a company’s product that support elements of expectations that are more important to the end user than the environmental impact (hopefully not) but the metrics they do meet will provide some additional benefit.

If Volkswagen had looked to Chrysler/Dodge, they may have learned this. Dodge is not known for fuel efficient cars. They meet minimum required standards for fuel economy and emissions but instead look to promote their cars based on styling and power train. They are very upfront as a manufacturer that they do not have a Prius wannabe but they do have initiatives to improve economy in line with their styling and power they are known for. For the right buyer, this is more important than 70 MPG and a lack luster car with no power. VW was trying to appear as a “green alternative” to Toyota and Honda especially in a diesel market like Europe and you see the results.

The ICT industry has a good opportunity to continue to provide great quality products and energy efficiency attributes without the green washing. The proof will be in the pudding and the ingredients are listed.

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