Across industries, companies are rethinking the ways they design, manufacture and ship products, looking for ways to meet performance and quality requirements while using fewer resources. This trend is also seen in the security industry.
In the face of escalating environmental challenges like global warming and extreme weather events, the push for sustainability has never been more pressing. Nations worldwide are committing to ambitious carbon reduction targets, with the
EU claims to be climate neutral by 2050 - an economy with net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
More and more industries understand the urgency of including sustainability in their product design and business operations. Across industries, companies are rethinking the ways they design, manufacture and ship products, looking for ways to meet performance and quality requirements while using fewer resources.
This trend is also seen in the security industry. Companies like
Hikvision,
Dahua,
Axis Communications and others publish annual ESG reports the detail their work in limiting environmental impact.
In the last couple of years, many companies have been promoting the sustainable aspects of their products. This is seen in 3 major aspects:
- Promoting existing product features as supporting sustainability, especially focusing on electricity consumption. For example, solar powered cameras that can help reduce electricity use, low power mode in cameras reduces the electricity consumption when the scene is idle. NVR storage disks, memory cards, video compression algorithms and virtualization of servers have also been promoted as ways to save bandwidth and with it electricity consumption and other costs.
- Choosing new materials and new manufacturing processes for products. There are more and more sustainable materials to choose from, providing security companies with an opportunity to adjust their product portfolio. For example, in 2023, HID introduced its new bamboo credentials, made from bamboo instead of PVC. Hikvision and Dahua also introduce new manufacturing processes which require less paints, thus lowering the amount of waste water and toxic fumes they release.
- New packaging – reducing the amount of plastics and disposable materials in the packaging. For example, using folded cardboard instead of Styrofoam to cushion the interior of the product packaging.
The new wave of sustainable products has the potential to be a "triple win” – increasing sales, cutting costs and reducing carbon emissions. But are these just “regular” features disguised as green? Can creating such products turn out to be not just a moral choice but also a solid business decision?
At the end of 2023, we conducted a survey of integrators and distributors who subscribe to asmag.com to try and measure and understand the
industry's perception and readiness towards sustainability initiatives.
The results show that when channel players are asked if they care about buying environmentally and ethically sustainable products, they overwhelmingly answer yes:
Forty-seven percent of the responses marked green and low carbon initiatives as very important for them. However, we see that still a little over a third of the responses marked it as not important for them.
Many seem to agree that going green is important, but the responses also reveal that for many it is still quite a vague idea how this is relevant for their day-to-day work. When asked specifically – “how familiar are you with green and low carbon initiatives in the security industry?” the results reveal mostly a superficial understanding of the topic.
Our survey also pointed that at the moment, commitment to sustainability is mostly declarative. When we asked about specific demand for sustainable solutions, the survey points that buyers at this point probably consider sustainable products more as a “nice to have” than a “must have.”
When asked “how often do clients ask for green solutions in your projects” the results reveal it is still not a top priority.
This was also evident when we asked the respondents to rank the different factor they consider when making purchasing decisions. channel players prioritized device design and features, followed by brand name and price. Green sustainability practices ranked last.
We see that while there is understanding of the importance of the topic, it is evident that practical factors such as device features, durability, brand and budgetary considerations take precedence in purchasing decisions.
How can both of these things be true? We know its important, but still make little movement in the right direction.
Barriers to adoption
Despite the general push towards more sustainable products the security industry is still somewhat slow to adopt this trend.
Some might argue that it is not the channel’s responsibility, and indeed a study by consulting firm Mckinsey shows that
80 percent of carbon that is tied to a product is locked up in the product design. The manufacturer can make the most impact by adjusting their manufacturing, logistics, operation and maintenance and make the most impact. By the time the product reaches the integrator there is little that the integrator can do to increase the sustainability of the product. However, distributors and integrator can influence this by making sure the products they choose are the ones that can help achieve sustainability goals.
Another reason for the slow adoption is that there is no shared standard in the industry to verify how sustainable surveillance products or systems are. In additions, existing standards like the ones in place for certification of green buildings, also hardly discuss security systems as part of the certification criteria.
When there is no single and binding definition of sustainability, there is also no accountability. For example, using solar panels to generate electricity might reduce the use of fossil fuels, but sustainability requires a look at the whole product life cycle. If the manufacturing of solar panels also requires rare minerals and the panels are not always recyclable we are just pushing the problem into the future. When these cameras reach their end of life, will there still be tens of thousands of non-recycable panels that will go to a landfill?
A third challenge for sustainability advocates is to change the image of the sustainable solutions from being costly to useful. Sustainable solutions often remove choice and limit options. Buyers either have to believe that the higher price they are paying for a product now will save them money later (e.g. by saving electricity costs), or they have to be willing to pay the higher price in exchange for being more environmentally friendly. Both scenarios require a change in mindset, which not easy to achieve.
The path forward: what can integrators and other channel players do to effectively support the push for a sustainable future?
Security systems first priority is to keep premises safe, but they can also increase the sustainability of premises by sharing the information they collect with the facility manager. For example, access control technology can provide occupancy data: how many people are in the building, at what times and in which parts. This information can be integrated with Building Energy Management Systems to help regulate heating or cooling needs and save electricity. In essence, security systems can serve as an additional set of sensors to help regulate a facility's performance, and can also save the installation and footprint of other sensors.
A second effort should be made in advocating for industry-wide standards and certifications to validate sustainability claims. This will allow channel players to really vet products and choose the ones that have a real positive impact.
While challenges exist, the security industry has the potential to take part in advancing sustainability goals. By prioritizing collaboration, innovation, and education, industry professionals can drive meaningful change towards a more sustainable future.