Digital technologies now represent 4% of the world’s total carbon emissions and their energy consumption are increasing by 9% every year. Clearly, the notion that online activities are ‘greener alternatives’ is far from the truth. With the accelerated pace of going digital, organizations need to use technologies in a way that advances their business objectives without hurting the environment.
Here are five ways enterprises can attain both business and sustainability goals:
1. Know the facts
Measuring your company’s carbon footprint, understanding your company’s contribution to the present situation and then looking for opportunities to reduce your contribution are three important steps . Organizations can begin by measuring their website’s carbon footprint using tools such as the website carbon calculator.
2. Rethink data storage
With the rapidly rising global demand for storing, managing, and extracting insights from data, it is no secret that organizations are struggling with data overload. Organizations need to eliminate redundant, obsolete, and trivial (ROT) data. They must also create new data policies, which would define the nature and quantity of data to be collected, and its retention period. Such actions can be a. triple win, enabling the company to cut costs, reduce storage requirements, and scale back energy consumption.
3. Incorporate digital sustainability
We are currently in the ‘big pledge era’: a time when world governments and big corporations are boldly committing to radical reductions in their carbon footprint and overall environmental impact.
4. Adopt green software
Software engineers and developers must adopt more environmentally conscious approaches to design. The focus should be on partnerships and investments that promote software that aim at sustainable development. One such example is Microsoft’s Green Software Foundation, which supports sustainable app development.
5. Conduct regular energy audits
The infusion of AI in traditional,time-consuming audits, combined with publicly available data and proprietary information, can help companies better monitor their energy use. This in turn can enable leaders to identify real-time opportunities for improvement.
