In a similar vein, Kyocera began to focus on the environmental sustainability of its product range back in the mid eighties, and by 1995 had developed completely biodegradable printer cartridges, and integrated disposal costs into its supply processes.

"Our capital costs were more expensive, but our running costs were cheaper and that's where the business driver came into play," local managing director, David Finn, explained. "It's not only the products themselves, it's the recycling as well. We commit to recycling 96 percent of each printer and have developed a global process to do so with Sims Metal."

While such environmentally friendly business practices are economically sustainable, according to Finn, they require a high level of innovative thinking and planning.

"It takes time and creativity to come up with these procedures, and we have developed substantial credibility and deep roots in this area," he said. "But at the moment we are fighting off 'green wash' because everyone wants to appear to be doing something, without actually having the procedures or the technology in place. That's a challenge we all have to deal with."

Wash on, wash off

Dealing with green wash is an increasingly challenging proposition for the channel according to Clayton Moulynox, managing director for the Western Australian division of reseller and integrator, Evolve IT Australia.

"Vendors are pumping out information regarding their products and how green they all are, but there's still a lack of specific useful information," he said. "There's a lot of general messaging around going green, but there's no explanation of the technical details, no clear indication of what we need to do, or why we need to do it."

With its customer base built firmly in the SMB sector, Moulynox said business drivers simply weren't there when it came to adopting green business practices.

"We're getting a lot of paraphernalia from the larger vendors about how they are becoming green, but it really misses the mark in terms of where our business operates," Moulynox said. "None of our clients are asking for it and none of our staff have raised the issue so it's just not on our radar."