University of Warwick Innovation Centre-based Px3 has been recognised as one of the best in the business after being named as a finalist in the Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

Px3 is an independent sustainability consultancy on a mission to remove the equivalent GHG impact of driving 100,000 cars every year from our atmosphere by 2050 via the diffusion of sustainable IT. Px3 provides unique carbon footprint analysis to help companies reduce their impact on the planet and plan their Net Zero strategies. Focusing on the use of information technology, using their data modelling to show its greenhouse gas emissions from a number of perspectives including which devices or locations are the most polluting.

We talked with Justin and Ewen from Px3 about how they provide unique and accurate carbon footprint analysis to help companies reduce their impact on the planet and plan their Net Zero strategies.

Watch the interview below:

Research shows that around about 2% of greenhouse gas emissions are produced by IT. That’s obviously the production and use, and then obviously the end-of-life process, so the focus that we have is to ensure that we quantify the impact when we speak to customers and manufacturers, of what they’re doing with their IT, and then show them a better way of doing it, and therefore abate the future GHG emissions. So primarily, really, we’re trying to reduce the carbon footprint of IT, now and moving forward.

The inspiration for me is current methodologies that work on that carbon footprint of IT tend to ignore the actual human-computer interaction. That’s when we’re using the computer – Most of the emissions are based on quantification of ‘low power’ modes including: off, sleep, idle, but don’t actually look at the ‘active mode’ and the thing is the ‘active mode’s’ when the power draw is the highest – Therefore that’s when we’re creating carbon emissions. What inspired me was to work out how to actually look at making sure that we can quantify that meaningfully, introduce it into the equation, and make sure that’s included in the carbon footprint calculation. Armed with those baseline figures and those metrics, about how those devices really perform, wherever they’re being used, then they’re given that map, if you like, of the emissions, where they’re coming from, and some advice on what they can do about it.

Simply by changing operating systems on some devices, you can save just under 20% of the energy, using the same device, but effectively, in a slightly different way. But if we look at more fundamental change, to lower energy devices, or Cloud Data Centres, then you can be looking at 60-70% savings. The interest in this is huge, so our customers now include Central Government, multinational organisations, major charities, all sorts of sizes of businesses, from a few hundred up to several hundred thousand users. As a result, year-on-year we’ve grown over 500% in comparison with last year.

So you can see this is really picking up, as a business, but also as a top-level concern for organisations in terms of what they’re focused on, and what they’re willing to invest in, in order to make a change. I think the most exciting development for us is, firstly, Google has adopted our technologies and our applications, what they call their ‘Foundation for their Sustainability Strategy,’ for the Chrome operating systems, and also the end-user computing side of the business. The other thing that’s most exciting for me, Ewen mentioned it earlier, is the public sector adoption – We have our Dynamic Carbon Footprint Application which is for procurement teams to be able to assess devices on sustainability criteria.

That’s in Beta-test at the moment, with some of the largest UK government departments and local councils currently, and they’re looking to adopt that, so that they can ensure they put that within their procurement strategies. So for me, that is so exciting. I think one of the main things for us really is that in order to be credible in the marketplace we have to be associated with market-leading academia. So whenever we talk to a customer of any size, whether it’s Google, whether it’s AstraZeneca, or one of the other large organisations – We lead with the fact that the research we’ve done is academically verified by University of Warwick and Warwick Business School, the two organisations overseeing Justin’s PhD, so for us being based out of the university Innovation Centre really gives us the credibility that what we’re doing is not green-wash, it’s not an invention, well it is an invention, but it’s a good invention, it’s a verified invention, rather than something that’s just based on something that people have dreamed up. We’re the only people that we know of worldwide who’ve got a method of doing this, that’s verified by academia, and based on published and peer-reviewed science, and for us, that’s critical to the credibility of the company.

About Px3

Based on CEO Justin Sutton-Parker’s PhD research overseen by the University of Warwick and Warwick Business School, Px3 scientifically benchmark products and services and provide “what if” analysis to show the impact of changes such as using devices for longer, or switching to lower-energy solutions and advise on how IT can be used to reduce emissions by cutting business travel and commuting. Px3‘s customers range from many of the world’s largest technology companies, multi-nationals and central government departments to UK charities, universities and local authorities.

Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2022

Px3‘s founders Justin Sutton-Parker and Ewen Anderson are two of the shortlisted business leaders from across the nation to have been selected out of over 5,300 entrants – the most the awards has ever had. The Great British Entrepreneur Awards, in partnership with Starling Bank, acknowledges and champions the hard work and uplifting stories of business owners across the UK, with an emphasis on their journey and resilience over financial achievements.

Twelve awards will be given out per region for categories including Disruptor of the Year, Entrepreneur for Good Award, and the Great British Entrepreneur of the Year. Notable winners from previous years include Social Chain founder Steven Bartlett, who went on to become the youngest ever investor on BBC’s Dragon’s Den.

          Being recognised in the sustainability category for these awards is really important to us. As a company we seek to promote solutions and ways of working which reduce the impact of the world of work on the environment. We believe that Green IT can be great IT – and anything that helps us get that message to a wider audience is good news.

Ewen Anderson, CIO at Px3

The winners will be announced at a Grand Final, held at the Grosvenor Hotel in London on 21st November.

This year is the 10th anniversary of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. The alumni has collectively generated over £30 billion in revenue and employed more than 450,000 people.

          he quality of this year’s entrants exemplified the strength of entrepreneurship across the UK. The quality of applications is consistently excellent year on year, but we have been especially blown away by the innovation, drive and determination demonstrated this year. Shortlisting from so many inspiring contenders has been more challenging than ever, with many deserving cases put forward and an ever-growing business community thriving across the country.

From the pandemic to the ongoing cost of living crisis, business owners haven’t had it easy over the past few years, but it’s a testament to the tenacity and perseverance of these entrepreneurs that they have continued on their path and refused to give in.

This year’s finalists should be so proud of what they’ve already achieved both in business and in being shortlisted for an award – we’re looking forward to seeing everyone at the Finals and unveiling the winners!

Francesca James, Founder of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards

          Congratulations to all those businesses who have made the shortlist. It’s great to see the passion, resilience and amazing ingenuity from entrepreneurs across so many categories.

Anne Boden MBE, Founder of Starling Bank, headline partner of the Awards

Related articles