Empowering the IT ecosystem to drive sustainability in a changing world

The IT channel has a vital part to play in helping themselves and their end users to slow down the effects of climate change and contribute to a sustainable world.

Governments continue to grapple with ways to reduce carbon emissions and create sustainable environmental policies, albeit at varying degrees and levels.

Vendors, distributors, resellers, and end users can create industry-led initiatives that take responsibility for reducing carbon emissions and waste. At the same time, ensuring the mining for rare earth minerals ends.

According to the 2024 Enterprise Cloud Index(ECI), a Nutanix-sponsored survey of 1,500 IT decision-makers worldwide, sustainability is recognised as a priority for their organisation, and many are already implementing sustainability initiatives. 

The ECI report showed that in 2023, many organisations focused on being more data-driven in terms of their approach to sustainability: 

• 51 per cent of organisations say they improved their ability to identify areas for reducing waste 
• 44 per cent indicate they improved their ability to monitor and measure greenhouse gas emissions as well as their carbon footprint

IDC notes that this transparency will continue to increase as organisations experience mounting pressure from customers and business partners for clearer carbon emissions data, indicating a business value impact in lost revenue opportunities associated with non-cooperation. 

Demand for power consumption

However, these small steps need to become bigger strides as technologies like artificial intelligence drive up data centres’ power and water consumption. As more businesses use technologies like AI, the demand for the information and technology sector will only increase and, with it, its contribution to climate change.

Joe Craparotta, vice president of IT Business, pacific zone at Schneider Electric, told ARN that data centres are significant energy consumers, consuming approximately 200 terawatt hours annually.

“Recent research from the University of California, revealed that ChatGPT uses 500 millilitres of water every time it’s asked between five to 50 prompts,” he said. “With this growing awareness of the environmental impact of IT operations coming into focus, it’s no surprise that sustainability and green IT are gaining traction in the Australian channel.

According to Craparotta, local businesses cite environmental sustainability as the third-highest IT management priority over the next 12 months.

“Furthermore, the government’s focus on Scope 3 emissions and requiring green credentials from data centre providers for contracts incentivises the channel to adopt sustainable practices,” he said.

Adopting personal responsibility

Green IT is critical to minimising the growing impact of businesses’ IT operations. It starts with adopting a standardised approach to measuring and reporting emissions so businesses can make informed decisions to reduce their overall carbon footprint and enhance their sustainability efforts.

Scott Frew, CEO of iasset.com, told ARN that while sustainability is “good”, “regeneration is better”.

“If we sustain what we’re doing on the planet today, nothing will change and the world will still evolve in ways we don’t necessarily want. Every business on the planet should be addressing this,” he said.

According to Frew, vendors need to find ways to offset their carbon output more than offset it, while distributors and resellers need to take significant steps to address their emissions.

“Microsoft is 30 per cent over its carbon footprint predictions and is supposed to be reducing it with AI and other technologies,” he said. “As an industry, we’re going backwards, and vendors have a responsibility to at least offset the climate impacts of their manufacturing.”

Frew notes that the world is “running out of rare earth minerals for laptops, servers, and other technology”.

“Vendors need to work on recycling these materials if they want to continue building,” he said. “Manufacturers should take control of the recycle-refurbish-remanufacture market rather than leaving it to third parties.”

According to Frew, manufacturers can maintain profitability by charging a margin on refurbished items if they handle refurbishment.

“This process should go back up the channel to the manufacturer and then down again, ensuring they still profit,” he said.

“Distributors and resellers will need to cover the costs of sending equipment back up the channel, creating a two-way channel rather than a single lane. Their focus will largely be on internal emissions.”

Although distributors can also continue to pressure vendors to provide the carbon information they need, suggests Frew.

“If the vendor doesn’t provide this information, no one further down the channel can make informed decisions,” he said. “All distributors should offset the carbon cost of their inbound and outbound freight operations because no one’s covering that cost.”

Referencing his time during Distribution Central, Frew said it needed more capacity to calculate its carbon footprint for freight. While distributors use shipping services like DHL, UPS, or similar services to bring products in, these carriers don’t offer a carbon offset from the source.

“All distributors should pay for the offsets for both incoming and outgoing freight,” he said. “We planted a tree for every invoice we generated, planting over 120,000 trees. I couldn’t calculate the exact carbon footprint then, so planting trees was a way to cover some of the impact.

Considering that trees live for a few hundred years, I’m sure we somehow got ahead of the game.”

Channeling green initiatives

Craparotta suggests other ways for the channel to contribute to sustainability and green IT.

“Managed service providers (MSPs) can assist their end users by implementing data-driven approaches to identify and categorise emissions from operations and the supply chain,” he said. “This includes outsourced IT services from cloud and colocation service providers. MSPs can also guide their clients in developing strategies to prioritise carbon reduction efforts and establish reporting frameworks for Scope 3 emissions.”

By doing so, MSPs can help end users make impactful carbon reductions and align with sustainability goals.

While most businesses understand the benefits of going green, implementing more sustainable practices can often feel daunting, particularly given the current economic climate.

Craparotta recommends adopting a Green IT approach, which can seem like a big step but doesn’t have to happen simultaneously.

“A good starting point is establishing policies and best practices for everyone in the business to follow,” he said. “Green IT solutions are typically designed for energy efficiency and reduced reliance on physical infrastructure, leading to long-term cost savings.”

Keeping it real

However, Frew believes manufacturers must also be honest about greenwashing initiatives.

“They put someone in the environmental, social governance (ESG) role in doing some marketing, tick the box and make people believe they’re committed to ESG, but real progress is going to be painful,” he said. “As an individual, you must be responsible for your impact, even within a business.”

He believes directors have a responsibility to do their best and the shortest answer to how that can be done is to use technology until its last breath, avoiding the need to buy the newest devices.

“Choose products that consume less power, like LEDs, which were a great step forward in reducing power consumption,” he said. “The industry needs to step forward; for example, it no longer has offices, with everyone working from home, eliminating commute costs.

People can take actions to minimise and mitigate their impact. Everyone should have solar power and, if affordable, battery technology to store solar energy.”