“Only one Earth” is the campaign for World Environment Day (WED) 2022. The United Nations (UN) says it is a call for “ collective, transformative action on a global scale to celebrate, protect and restore our planet.”
According to the UN, “We are using the equivalent of 1.6 Earths to maintain our current way of life, and ecosystems cannot keep up with our demands.”
And while we can’t all be world-facing champions of climate change or sustainability initiatives; we can contribute to the effort in our own way through the people we engage with every day. Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) can as leaders and partners contribute to WED.
Putting data to work
Outside of cleaning up our environments, and encouraging more sustainable use of resources, enterprises can do their part. Unhinged data centres are epicentres of wasteful use of energy. Office environments, whether in the paper documents printed only to be thrown away or machines left powered on with no purpose, are practices that remain the norm across businesses in Asia.
Sanjay Rohatgi, senior vice president and general manager for APAC at NetApp, says “CIOs and IT teams can help organisations take the first step to better understand their data’s environmental impact and manage their data more sustainably.”
According to research by IDC, only 32% of data available to enterprises is put to work; the remaining 68% is not even used. IT teams can reduce enterprises’ carbon footprint by learning how much of their data they use and need and then getting rid of the rest.
“CIOs need to realise the importance and value in integrating data collection and leveraging it for decision making that supports and accelerates sustainability across an organisation,” said Thomas Baudlot, CEO for energy solutions APAC at ENGIE.
He goes on to argue that it is not possible to measure and attribute impact without it, which is key to calibrating efforts. There needs to be a strong link between IT priorities and the organisation's broader sustainability plan.
Andy Ng, VP and MD for Asia South and Pacific region at Veritas Technologies says CIOs can play a decisive role in developing new technology solutions, digital infrastructures, and platforms to drive a sustainable business strategy.
What about CFOs? Baudlot says CFOs can contribute to drive sustainability plans by leveraging on digitisation to model and communicate the savings gained by reduced energy use, sustainability solutions and modified human behaviour to drive change, by integrating ESG challenges into the company's financial goals.
Ng concurs adding heads of finance can connect sustainability performance to value while improving internal and external reporting as well as managing risks related to sustainable business initiatives.
Baudlot further suggests that digitisation also adds value by introducing transparency and traceability, which are key to validating sustainability initiative outcomes. CFOs and CIOs can mandate these practices not only within their respective functions but across the enterprise.
Not another initiative for the day
Initiatives can become ‘a dime a dozen’ – slang for too many initiatives so that focus gets diluted and purpose is forgotten.
Short of a cataclysmic event that threatens to wipe out humanity in one’s lifetime, how can organisations keep their focus on sustainability and protecting the environment as part of their daily routine?
Baudlot acknowledges the challenge that many organisations are currently grappling with is simply understanding and quantifying environmental consequences and being able to measure them in a consistent and objective manner over time.
He suggests combining the right data sets and understanding the financial motivations behind them, organisations can pursue sustainability as a business model, allowing for it to become part of the organisation’s long-term goal of continuous improvement and profitability.
Rohatgi believes that moving data to the cloud helps lower carbon emissions as it offers greater efficiency in aggregated compute resources.
“Adopting a ‘cloud-first’ strategy can enable organizations to create a highly sustainable, long-term data storage and management approach,” he explained.
IDC forecasts that the continued adoption of cloud computing could prevent the emission of more than one billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from 2021 through 2024.
Ng concedes that given the rising carbon emissions and pressure to mitigate climate change, there is an increased focus on sustainability today. “Whether it’s brand reputation, regulatory requirements or ethical reasons, sustainability cannot be ignored, and stopgap measures won’t reap any benefits. Having a long-term sustainability strategy should be central to a business model to foster an organisation’s viability and growth,” he opined.
Your contribution to WED starts here
"The idea of 'green IT' has been around now for years, but the direct impact of hyperscale computing can have on CO2 emissions is getting increased notice from customers, regulators, and investors and it's starting to factor into buying decisions," said Cushing Anderson, program vice president at IDC.
He contends that designing datacentres from the ground up to be carbon neutral will be the real measure of contribution. “And for advanced cloud providers, matching workloads with renewable energy availability will further accelerate their sustainability goals," he continued.
Baudlot cites the NTUC FairPrice partnership with ENGIE as one example of an integrated sustainability solution that ‘amplifies’ impact.
Through this partnership, ENGIE is deploying a 2.45MWp Rooftop Solar System integrated with Battery Energy Storage System and Electric Vehicle (EV) Chargers at NTUC FairPrice Hub. Upon completion, the solar power system will help FairPrice reduce its carbon footprint by approximately 1,200 tC02eq per year.
According to Ng, in FY2021 Veritas’ Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction goals were submitted and approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). The targets covering GHG emissions from Veritas operations are consistent with reductions required to keep warming to 1.5°C, which is what the latest climate science has indicated is needed to prevent the most damaging effects of climate change.
The hard but hopeful road ahead
The 2020 Gartner ReimagineHR Employee Surveys revealed that 64% of employees say they want to work for an organization with a strong social and environmental conscience. Gartner senior principal analyst, Lindsay Azim, however, contends that leaders often struggle to engage employees in sustainability initiatives.
“Closing this engagement gap is complex but imperative, as employees at all levels and in every geography need to champion sustainability for an enterprise to hit ambitious targets,” she posits.
FutureCIO believes that CIOs and CFOs can and do have a positive role to play in engaging employees to play an active role in sustainability initiatives.
It often just begins with the first step – starting with you.
Editor’s note: Read “Winning on ESG goals” by Gartner’s Jasleen Sindhu to discover four ways to win on ESG goals.
