How the cloud can reduce our digital pollution

Last year saw the world quite rightly turn its spotlight towards the environment and sustainability – perhaps with a closer lens ever before. From Greta Thunberg’s longstanding campaigning to COP26, we have all become increasingly aware of how our actions are impacting the planet.

Indeed, consumer and business-to-business purchasing decisions are being increasingly influenced by organisations’ ESG strategies, which are now placed under greater scrutiny. According to recent Gartner research, by 2025, the carbon emissions of hyperscale cloud services will be a top three criterion in cloud purchase decisions.

Yet up until recently, technology’s impact on the environment - the ‘digital pollution’ effect - has often gone unnoticed. So given such an emphasis is being placed on the supply-chain and its ESG credentials, how can large organisations tackle their digital pollution and make more sustainable technology investments?

Hybrid work gains

Even before the onset of the pandemic - and the subsequent increase in technology demands - the carbon footprint of devices, the internet, and the systems supporting them was responsible for approximately 3.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This is similar to the amount produced by the aviation industry globally and at the time was predicted to double by 2025. Certainly, it can only have increased.

Covid-19 enforced shifts to home and now hybrid working have naturally resulted in a reduction of most businesses’ carbon footprints, primarily through a significant drop in commuting and lower energy usage in offices. In fact, a recent study found that by cutting commuting and consolidating real estate as part of a broader sustainability effort, remote work could help reduce annual CO2 emissions by 214 million tonnes.

Yet, such large scale remote working does bring with it unwanted consequences for the planet. Just a single internet request represents 7g of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) and sending or receiving an email emits 4g of CO2e. With more organisations rolling out hybrid working models, in which technology will be increasingly relied on for meetings and collaboration, we must ensure sustainability remains front of mind as we focus on the future of work.

Setting the pathway to sustainability

A recent Citrix study found that nearly two thirds (63%) of UK IT leaders believe their organisations are at an advanced stage of their environmental, social and governance (ESG) development. Alongside this, just one in 10 (11%) reported their businesses are at the early stages of their ESG journey. Of those who said they were advanced on their development, nearly half (43%) are also helping their clients become more sustainable as well, as part of their business models.

When compiling ESG reporting, nearly half (45%) of enterprises surveyed deploy in-built mechanisms that track exact carbon emissions based on usage from electricity consumption of the full lifecycle of the products/devices they manufacture or services they deliver (e.g. SaaS) to customers. A similar number (51%) estimate based on typical usage over an average product lifespan.

The research found 42% of large organisations even track the environmental impact of their employees working remotely, i.e. the electricity tariff they use, with a further 39% planning to do this. Just 16% of respondents said their business has no plans to do this.

As businesses review every aspect of their ESG strategies, analysing the environmental impact of the technologies they use should be high-up on their agenda. Architecting a more sustainable IT infrastructure means choosing technologies that help reduce an organisation’s carbon footprint, while still selecting those that enable productivity and growth over the long-term.

Public cloud efficiencies

As the exponential demand for collaboration, digital engagement and technological innovation continues, hyperscale service providers (for example, the likes of Azure, AWS, Google, Oracle and IBM) are increasingly turning to renewable energy to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and create a sustainable approach to data centre computing.

The Citrix study mentioned above also found that on average, nearly two thirds (61%) of data and applications are currently hosted and managed in the cloud. As part of this, around half (49%) of those running in the cloud are within public clouds provided by the hyperscale players. Moving data to the public cloud can reduce CO2 emissions by 59 million tonnes per year – the equivalent of taking 22 million cars off the road. Large technology companies are already taking the lead by powering their data centres with renewable energy: for example, Microsoft has a goal to be carbon neutral by 2030 and Google is the largest non-utility investor in renewable energy in the world.

Working together

Delivering a truly sustainable business model involves fine-tuning every aspect of a business so it hits those environmental metrics and lets an organisation become the change the world so desperately needs. Today, as we stand on the brink of a climate emergency, cloud computing, when used wisely, has the potential to minimise the environmental impact that going digital has had upon our planet.

It is critical that organisations gain a handle on their current environmental impact; there is still so much to be done to reduce digital pollution and ensure green practices become the norm. IT leaders have a vital role to play in helping make this happen, by making better choices not just for their department or business, but for the future of the planet.