IBM has created an innovative way to work with its nearly 100,000 business partners on a validation program to let customers know that services and products from its partners are environmentally friendly.

Although it has a somewhat awkward name, the “Ready for IBM Energy & Environment” program seems to be a win-win situation. IBM gets to promote its own brand while also helping to market and promote its business partners that develop eco-friendly products. This gives incentives to its partners to green their goods so they can participate in IBM-driven marketing opportunities, such as online marketing campaigns, speaking opportunities and events where they can showcase their products and solutions at any of the 42 IBM Innovation Centers worldwide.

The program is designed to be a technical validation system targeted for IBM’s partners that develop software, hardware or service solutions that demonstrate measurable sustainability benefits. With the “Ready for IBM Energy & Environment” seal, IBM’s partners can help market and sell their products to assure clients that the product or service has been evaluated and demonstrated to reduce environmental impact based on real-world customer use. In order to bear the seal, products and services must meet IBM's criteria by reducing resources such as energy, water and paper materials, and be approved by IBM’s Energy & Environment Review Board and its Corporate Environmental Affairs group.

"This new program showcases solutions that are already reducing environmental impact in the field and will help our business partners better position themselves to meet customers' energy and environment goals," said Jim Corgel, general manager of IBM independent software vendors and developer relations, in a press release.

Red Hat received the “Ready for IBM Energy & Environment” validation for its solution of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. BNZ, a New Zealand-based financial services provider, used Red Hat’s technologies for its front-end IT environment to help meet its corporate goal to become carbon neutral by 2010. Since then, BNZ has reduced its datacenter footprint by 30 percent and recorded a 33 percent reduction in heat output and a 38 percent reduction in power usage. Plus, BNZ plans to recoup approximately 20 percent on its investment expected over the life of the platform.

Visit IBM’s Web site to nominate products and solutions for the validation.