Paving the Future for Green IT on World Environment Day

As the IT sector is blooming with its advent towards technology, a crucial aspect that comes into the limelight is sustainability and the adoption of green initiatives. 

Organizations nowadays are actively embracing green IT principles to reduce their environmental impact. Their efforts include improving energy efficiency in data centers, using renewable energy sources, and optimizing IT asset lifecycles.

ESG has become a core part of operation for many IT companies. They are setting ambitious sustainability targets. Businesses are also incorporating ESG criteria into vendor selection, monitoring green indices of suppliers, and encouraging green investments to improve their ESG reputation.

Exclusive Insights from the Industry

“Our commitment to sustainability and social responsibility is evident through initiatives like Green Fridays, launched in 2023 across our Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bangalore offices, where we power off certain non-operational floors on some days. This effort resulted in a significant reduction in electricity consumption. Furthermore, we've partnered with Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited to integrate renewable energy into our operations and are actively transitioning 10% of our fleet to green vehicles. Collaborating with the property management vendor, we're expanding EV charging infrastructure across our offices. In addition to these efforts, we organize diverse initiatives such as sapling plantation drives, waste-to-wonder contests, and clean-up drives on beaches, lakes, and parks. These actions reflect our ongoing commitment to minimizing our environmental footprint and fostering sustainability across our operations in India”, said Aswin Lakshmanan, Senior Director, Strategy & Planning, at Verizon India.

“Sustainable practices should incorporate green, inclusive, and ethical practices. While technology can help businesses be more environmentally and socially friendly (e.g. optimize logistics, digitize prototypes, supply chain transparency, etc.), we believe technology must do a better job of making itself more sustainable. Digital apps should consume less energy, take along individuals from all walks of life (illiterate, aged, blind, etc.), and be trustworthy (use the right data sources, be secure, etc). The key challenge or rather the opportunity is to educate technologists on sustainable digital practices such that these practices become a default part of all solutions. Nagarro has already started work on the learning side and on creating tools and dashboards to accelerate sustainable digital engineering (aka eco-digital engineering) into the solutions we provide. In addition, we now have service offerings so that all our clients can seamlessly bake sustainability into their digital operations”, shared Ashish Agarwal, Managing Director, of New Ventures and Custodian of Sustainability, Nagarro.

Establishing Harmony between Technology and Environment

Technology providers are increasing their green IT innovation to meet market demands. Industry groups are establishing standards and best practices while consulting firms advise on IT policies and regulations.

For instance, IBM partnered with the COP27 UN Climate Change Conference to showcase how technology can help align business and government sustainability goals.  Companies are setting ambitious sustainability targets, such as Honeywell's commitment to carbon neutrality by 2035. Infosys achieved carbon neutrality 30 years early and 67.52% of electricity for their India operations comes from renewable sources.

In conclusion, the IT sector is making significant strides in embracing green initiatives and ESG principles. Adopting these strong ESG practices not only relieves environmental stress but can also lead to better financial performance, lower operating costs, and improved talent attraction and retention for IT companies.

Hence, by driving innovation, fostering collaboration, and realizing operational and financial benefits, the industry is well-positioned to lead the charge toward a more sustainable future.