Research from Sony Professional Displays and Solutions Europe offers a valuable into how corporate audiovisual professionals across Europe approach sustainability when buying AV equipment. The new report challenges popular preconceptions around companies’ unwillingness to pay more for sustainable products and solutions, illustrated by the finding that around eight in 10 businesses overall — and 90% in the U.K. — are willing to pay over 20% more for AV products that are either made more sustainably or operate with greater energy efficiency. Even more surprisingly, over a third say they would pay more than a 50% uplift for these more sustainable AV solutions.

Here’s the full report: https://pro.sony/en_GB/corporate/corporate-insights/sustainability-report

84% of total respondents — compared to three quarters in the U.K. — also said a provider’s sustainability practices were important when choosing an AV partner, with 79% saying a lack of sustainability practices from prospective providers would put them off.

“Sony’s new research dispels the myth that sustainability is still seen as a nice to have,” Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Kinly Rhea Horlock said. “New regulation, combined with growing pressure from consumers and employees, has made a number of companies start to think more seriously about sustainability, but these ambitions need to be echoed in purchasing decisions in order to drive real change.”

The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) appears to “significantly influence corporate AV professionals’ approach to procurement in the next two years.” Over a third (34%) of respondents overall — and similar proportions in the U.K. — said CSRD would significantly impact them and that they’d prioritize AV providers with strong sustainability practices, while a further 35% said it would have a moderate impact.

“We often hear that, while companies have an appetite to be more sustainable, most are unwilling to pay more for sustainable solutions. This research challenges that preconception,” Head of Professional Displays and Solutions at Sony Europe Rik Willemse said. “It’s heartening to see corporations willing to ‘put their money where their mouth is’ on sustainability. In our view, the onus is now on AV providers to bring more sustainable solutions to market and clearly explain their benefits to prospects – a mission we take very seriously here at Sony with our company wide road to zero initiative and sustainable product solutions such as the SORPLAS recycled plastic used in our BRAVIA screens.”

In tandem with Censuswide, the Sony research surveyed over 1000 corporate AV professionals across the UK, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Denmark and France. The research included views across multiple sectors across both public and private organizations.

The research also revealed that:

Respondents felt their own company’s ethical standards were the number one key influence behind ensuring sustainable operations, with them ranking influences in the following order:

• Our company ethics — 41% (U.K. — 34%)
• Customer demand — 37% (U.K. — 30%)
• Investors — 34% (U.K. — 42%)
• Regulators — 34% (U.K. — 33%)
• Recruitment — 34% (U.K. — 30%)
• NGOs — 29% (U.K. — 31%)

Corporate AV professionals are considering their environmental impact across the entire procurement process, with the “pricing and negotiation” stage being the most common point to prioritize sustainability:

• Pricing and negotiation — 43% (U.K. — 39%)
• Vendor selection — 42% (U.K. — 37%)
• Project initiation — 40% (U.K. — 43%)
• Equipment specification — 39% (U.K. — 40%)
• Post-purchase/implementation — 36% (U.K. — 22%)
• At no stage — 0.5% (U.K. — 0%)

Eco-labels are seen as a valuable tool by many respondents, with the following considered important by decision-makers:

• Energy Star — 42% (U.K. — 36%)
• Carbon Trust — 41% (U.K. — 42%)
• EcoVadis — 30% (U.K. — 28%)
• MCSI (Morgan Stanley) — 27% (U.K. — 22%)
• Epeat — 26% (U.K. — 27%)
• None — 2% (U.K. — 0.8%)

“As we see more end-users looking for transparent and practical sustainability initiatives, it’s encouraging to see that Sony is driving this conversation forward as a manufacturer,” Marketing Manager at Universal AV Shelley Townend said. “While it is true that we are seeing sustainability crop up more and more in conversations during the purchasing cycle, especially with larger tenders, there is still work to be done. Unsurprisingly, despite best intentions, cost savings still often win out against eco-consciousness. The more we talk about this and manufacturers like Sony put weight behind the discussion, the closer our industry comes to positively impacting the health of our planet.”