Are you doing enough to decarbonise your business beyond cloud migration?

Sustainability is a must for businesses in 2023. Environmentally unsustainable behaviour is no longer excusable in an era of regulation and public scrutiny, so businesses are using other means to reach net zero, beyond simply shifting workloads to the cloud.

How? For starters, technology. It’s reported that 58% of businesses that digitise their operations achieve more success in green initiatives. But moving to the cloud in order to decarbonise is only a first step toward achieving sustainability goals. Holding yourself accountable and adopting sustainable practices is key to see real changes take effect. The first step of transferring data to the cloud should act as the foundation step to future transformation and long-term accountability. 

Putting into perspective today’s deteriorating climate, it's crucial for businesses to understand some of the common sustainability initiatives they can take. Here are three below to help get you started.  

1. Mapping out your IT infrastructure

Despite sustainability pressures, IT and digital functions remain a key focus. Evaluating the sustainability impact of these functions involves looking at emissions, energy use, waste, water use, and resource consumption. Having a transparent map and understanding of this information, businesses can make more informed decisions about where they might find potential sustainability wins. 

Businesses have a range of options available to reduce carbon output, from implementing energy efficient technologies and engaging employees in sustainability initiatives to shifting to sustainable procurement practices. These are some of the functions that have a big influence over a businesses' sustainability efforts. 

Having a complete picture of your IT infrastructure is always a great start for any task which requires business strategy and when it comes to tackling sustainability, will give you a clear indication of where to start first and how to prioritise your decarbonisation strategy. Adopting today’s environmentally conscious mindset means sustainability should be at the forefront of IT and digital functions. 

2. Re-using expired IT equipment 

Reusing IT equipment has several advantages for a business. Recycling unused IT equipment ensures that valuable raw materials are reused instead of thrown away and decommissioned electronics don’t end up in landfills.

How can I recycle? Firstly, you can sell unwanted equipment to e-waste recycling company. These companies will disassemble the equipment and recycle the valuable raw materials. Secondly, you can donate the equipment to educational institutions or non-profit organisations. These organisations can use the equipment for their own purposes, or they can resell it for fundraising. Just be sure to wipe all sensitive data from equipment first! 

3. Team effort 

Sustainability is a global goal so don’t be shy to turn to suppliers to help them achieve their sustainability goals too. Businesses can work with their suppliers to decrease their environmental impact by moving workloads to renewable power sources.

And don’t just stop at suppliers, seek out tech partners that put forward innovative solutions which will help drive sustainable change too! By partnering with companies that are developing new technologies to reduce environmental impact, businesses can be at the forefront of sustainable change.

When businesses are looking to tech partners to collaborate sustainable efforts with, these steps should be considered: determining whether their partner's goals are aligned with net zero as well as their own sustainable goal, whether they are they investing in clean energy, how progressive they are when it comes to their mission on achieving sustainability goals and how their solution will help achieve the shared goal of net zero. It's impossible to achieve 100% net zero, but partnering with tech firms that hold similar values and ambitions is a good start.  

Act now 

For successful net-zero endeavours, businesses must take a systems-based approach in order to holistically examine the interconnections between sectors, infrastructures and societies. They should not limit themselves to just one aspect of the puzzle, but rather look at all sources and consider how they can work with their suppliers and partners to transition towards achieving sustainability goals. Additionally, businesses should explore which technological advancements are available that could assist in emission losses or resource efficiency betterment; this may mean using data analysis or introducing newer ways of working. Together, these elements could help facilitate the attainment of sustainable goals.