Climate change is a monstrosity of a topic, so naturally there’s a lot of work to be done to tackle it.
But this doesn’t mean that every sustainability initiative must be major, to have an environmental impact. What’s perhaps more powerful, is the collective effort of as many people as possible, and the continued achievement of even marginal gains.
That’s why, in a recent article with We Are Tech Women, our head of transformation Carol McGrotty uncovered six ways IT teams could reduce their carbon footprint in 2022 and beyond…
1. Reviewing employee usage of existing tools
Throughout the pandemic, many organisations invested in technology in order to maintain a sense of ‘business as usual’ for their employees. However, fast forward to 2022 and several of these companies may now be finding such tools – which initially got them through the beginnings of the Covid-19 crisis – are no longer serving as great a purpose.
By taking a step back and assessing the entire tech stack, IT teams can truly understand what’s worth keeping, downgrading, or removing altogether. Intuitive data analytics can go deeper too – presenting insight to evidence how much or little employees are utilising specific tools.
At Vapour, we’ve also launched a new Application Monitoring as a Service (AMaaS) solution that provides ‘eyes’ across a company’s entire ecosystem, helping teams to identify a range of IT estate issues and optimise everything that happens from that point onwards.
If it’s not in use, stop the energy consumption associated with it, and streamline processes so excessive resource consumption is avoided.
2. Making sustainability more than a tick-box exercise
Saying you’re committed to providing more eco-conscious solutions and actually following through are often two very different things for a lot of businesses.
If you’re wanting to be greener but aren’t quite sure where to start, there are plenty of Government resources available to support you in your environmentally friendly journey. We’d also recommend joining the SME Climate Hub – a global initiative that aims to mainstream climate action and helps to focus workforces on how they can be truly sustainable.
A scheme like this can also empower members of the team to come forward as internal ‘champions’ – making sure your workforce keeps on-track with their eco-commitments. We’ve signed up to be on the road to becoming net zero by 2040, for example.
From a ‘light touch’ point of view too, use 2022 as the opportunity to donate technology you no longer require to responsible take-back schemes, and give equipment to those in need.
3. Working with like-minded suppliers
As well as reviewing your current tech stack, now is a good time to assess the list of current suppliers on your books – don’t be afraid to ask them about their environmental, social and corporate governance stance, and see if it aligns with your team’s own mission.
The same goes for when you’re onboarding new suppliers. Having a similar green ethos helps to empower your supply chain and provides additional benefits to customers too because they’re able to make positive changes by investing in more sustainable products and services.
4. Migrating to the cloud
With more organisations adopting a hybrid working employment model than ever before, the future of on-premise technology is uncertain to say the least.
Legacy, server-based systems require a lot of maintenance and cost to keep them running, and these are all reasons why several tech giants – such as Skype for Business and QuickBooks – are no longer applying sticking plasters, and instead shelving their older desktop products as a result.
When employees are demanding more ways to maintain productivity on-the-go – and without having to commute to the office every day – cloud-native technology creates a more flexible and sustainable solution for the hybrid working generation.
Additionally, for IT leaders seeking zero-touch provisioning, SD-WAN means they’ll have full visibility of their organisation and no longer be shackled by hardware installations when integrating their endpoint and network security.
5. Implementing cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI)
AI and machine learning can play a vital role in reducing power consumption. Adopting a ‘clean cloud’ approach to your technology can really help workforces to become more sustainable.
Recent reports have even suggested that the IT sector consumes an estimated 7% of global electricity and AI solutions can help ‘reduce energy waste from building or offices that account for almost one-quarter of CO2 emissions’.
Cloud AI adoption can present an array of workforce benefits too – from providing greater efficiency to liberating employees who can instead prioritise tasks, knowing their ‘machine’ is taking care of the more labour-intensive, mundane work in the background.
6. Exploring the possibilities of 5G
Although adoption is progressing at a slower rate in the UK compared to other countries across the globe, there’s an even greater requirement for workplace flexibility and efficiency – and that’s where 5G excels.
If recent studies are to be trusted, 5G connectivity could be ‘fundamental’ to Europe achieving future climate targets and such technology could create annual emissions savings of up to ‘170 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent’.
So, if you’re keen on tackling climate change, you might want to look into the reasons why other countries – in particular China – are already tapping into the powers of 5G and reaping the environmentally friendly benefits.
