Nortel Buzzboard

While green may be the ongoing industry topic, it’s the specific subject of energy efficiency that is really hot and it keeps putting Nortel in the news headlines. As I first pointed out earlier this year, this blog’s readers seem to be much more focused on the energy efficiency of Nortel’s enterprise data portfolio — and the substantial savings it can enable — than the broader discussion of general eco-friendly activities.

Is that bad? No, it’s just simple economics. Just like high fuel prices are the main reason drivers are trading in their SUVs for hybrids, high energy prices are the main driver for enterprises to start thinking green with their networks.

And the media is picking up on this too, with a whole slew of articles on Nortel’s energy efficiency efforts over the last few weeks.

• This morning Reuters has this article focusing on various Canadian companies promoting their green image. It leads with Nortel’s energy efficiency efforts. Reuters also had this article several weeks ago on how telcos are now demanding more energy efficient networks.
• The National Post recently printed this article on how Nortel was benefiting from the fact that energy efficiency was now becoming a huge selling point for customers.
• The Ottawa Citizen also had a Nortel-focused green article. In it, Peter Geisheker, chief executive of marketing firm the Geisheker Group, called Nortel’s efforts “brilliant,” and says “Nortel took the market position of being green before Cisco did, which puts them a step ahead of Cisco in the green category. Now, if Cisco does a green campaign, is makes Cisco look like a ‘me too’ copycat of Nortel’s position.”
• And of course the big one…a few weeks ago the Wall Street Journal had a great article on Nortel’s energy efficiency efforts. The article, Nortel Takes on Cisco, Mincing No Words, is unfortunately available only to subscribers (though a good Google search might get you good results).

That WSJ article spawned discussion in several blogs, including this post - Going Negative with Green Messaging - which closes with an interesting (and insightful) paragraph:

And frankly, Cisco’s response that “there are no industry standards to measure “green”; and Cisco’s gear meets the environmental requirements of the product-testing company Miercom” falls a bit flat with me. Not a counter-argument about green manufacturing or building initiatives, but a lack of industry standards? No pledge for improved performance or details of why the additional energy usage creates a superior product? This lack of rebuttal leaves me thinking Cisco either isn’t taking Nortel seriously or isn’t taking energy efficiency seriously - either case may not be a big mistake now, but could be a huge mistake in the future.