Colt Wins Eco Innovation Award
The award is given out by Bertelsmann’s Group IT Sourcing department in recognition of AI-assisted, sustainable building management.
Bertelsmann’s Group IT Sourcing department has just presented its third annual “Eco-Innovation Award” for strategic IT suppliers. The award recognizes the suppliers’ most innovative and outstanding ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) initiatives. This year’s focus was on “Artificial Intelligence as ESG Driver” – AI-assisted solutions for a sustainable future. The 2025 winner is Colt Technology Services with a project for sustainable building management.
From the 15 applications received, three outstanding finalists were nominated for this year’s Eco Innovation Award. The selection was made independent of company size or location and was based on standardized evaluation criteria. These finalists then presented their projects to the Sourcing Alliance, a cross-divisional committee of IT procurement experts at Bertelsmann. The representatives of all divisions in the Sourcing Alliance selected the winner based on various criteria such as degree of innovation, sustainability impact, feasibility, measurability, and relevance to the topic.
On January 28, 2025, the “Bertelsmann Eco-Innovation Award 2024” for strategic IT suppliers was presented to Colt Technology Services at the Corporate Center in Gütersloh. Colt is a Bertelsmann partner in the areas of SD-WAN network, Internet and fixed-line telephony. Its technology facilitates and optimizes hybrid work, thereby helping to reduce Bertelsmann’s costs and emissions.
Colt’s ‘Smart Building’ project
“Colt’s commitment to sustainable development, coupled with their use of cutting-edge AI technologies, has made them a worthy winner of our ‘Eco-Innovation Award for IT Suppliers’,” said Sebastian Michel-Wildner, the responsible Category Manager in Bertelsmann’s Group IT Sourcing department.
Colt’s “Smart Building” project won over the judges, prevailing over competition from Vodafone and Lenovo in the final selection. The project supports sustainable building management through the use of AI-controlled algorithms to optimize heating, cooling, and ventilation. This leads to a reduction in energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and total cost of ownership. The initiative was launched as a pilot project at Colt’s London headquarters in 2023 and includes integrated air quality sensors to monitor temperature, CO2 levels, humidity, and air pressure.
“We are proud and delighted to have been awarded the ‘Eco-Innovation Award 2024’ as a strategic IT supplier,” commented Keri Gilder, CEO of Colt Technology Services. “The Smart Building project supports our ESG strategy to be a supplier of choice based on our sustainable business operations. We are achieving sustainable growth with our digital infrastructure and smart building concept for our customers. The ‘Eco-Innovation Award’ recognizes this strategy and we are very grateful for that.”
