The rapid establishment of digitalisation in the real world led to a series of innovations, from increasing business productivity to supporting better decision-making among management. Still, analysing its long-term impact on society offers another perspective on how digitalisation impacts the environment.
IT infrastructures have an estimated global emission effect between 2.1% and 3.9%, which is expected to grow up to 5% due to growing electricity demands. At the same time, new sectors like artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency will contribute to the trend.
But there’s more to what digitalisation initiates. Millions of tonnes of electronic waste end up in landfills, with a small percentage recycled adequately. Manufacturing electronic devices is also damaging to nature due to the use of hazardous substances during different stages, while water consumption for cooling data centres could use a less wasteful alternative.
Considering all these insights, companies approach a sustainable IT strategy to minimise their impact and delve into a mindful and eco-friendly business blueprint.
So, what is sustainable IT?
Sustainable IT encompasses improving all IT operations in regard to their impact on climate change. Therefore, it starts from the designing stage of an electronic device and concerns manufacturing, using, and, finally, disposing of the product. Your business should understand the effects of each stage on nature and societies to truly make changes, which is usually highlighted in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics.
In IT, sustainable operations extend across multiple sectors, such as:
- Energy management, like automating powering devices down or using energy-efficient hardware;
- Renewable energy resources, like solar, wind or hydropower to transition from fossil fuels;
- Cloud computing instead of physical infrastructure to reduce e-waste;
- Recycling IT equipment and packaging for EPS (expanded polystyrene) which is non-biodegradable;
What are the benefits and limitations of green IT?
Cost-saving is one of the main benefits of adopting a sustainable IT strategy. Using energy-efficient hardware and better resources saves considerable expenses in the long run, especially if their lifecycle is expanded. Moreover, businesses can easily comply with global regulations and incentives through the US Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Another interesting take on green IT is a company’s increased resilience towards climate change-based disruptions, which usually take most businesses by surprise. This option can also offer a competitive advantage and an improved brand reputation.
When it comes to challenges, adopting a sustainable IT infrastructure can come at a high upfront cost when shifting to new technologies, green infrastructures, and additional training. At the same time, settling a totally new approach in larger organisations can face hurdles, especially with the fast-changing sector.
Still, how can you adopt a sustainable IT framework?
The best and easiest way to improve your IT infrastructure to a greener framework is through gradual and planned management. Starting with an audit would be appropriate to find which areas of the IT structure require improvement and which sectors can be changed without interfering with productivity.
For example, moving to the cloud is usually achievable, especially when working with cloud migration partners who handle rehosting, redeployment, and such. Of course, you can navigate to the cloud with the help of your team, especially as a small business. The newest cloud solutions use renewable energy resources and sustainable cooling systems.
Sourcing is also important because choosing suppliers whose products and practices prioritise sustainability puts you one step ahead of the competition. Supply chains massively impact the environment due to the extraction of raw materials for electronics (copper, lithium, and even rare earth elements) or manufacturing processes.
Can new technologies sustain better IT infrastructures?
As digitalisation became the norm in the business world, its impact on climate change wasn’t a major concern. The lack of awareness and preparation led us to this point. Hence, it might seem that adding more technology could deepen the issue instead of solving it.
However, that shouldn’t be the narrative we must follow. Leveraging artificial intelligence, for example, can help reduce energy consumption and waste in IT systems by predicting failures and automating tasks. At the same time, machine learning would be a great tool for analysing patterns regarding energy consumption. Finally, devices with IoT technology (Internet of Things) are required in real life, such as data centres, where they can monitor temperature and adjust it to avoid waste.
Implementing these emerging technologies requires new data security, compliance, and monitoring guidelines so companies can have a positive impact through their efforts.
On green coding practices
The IT industry relies heavily on coding, which may or may not be aided by artificial intelligence. While AI can complete codes and tests in several minutes, their accuracy is questionable due to error handling problems and architectural decisions.
Before we start relying too much on AI for coding, we should spread awareness of the importance and benefits of green coding, which includes several cost-efficient and sustainable practices. For example, it implies making algorithms more efficient and eliminating redundancy. Green coding takes advantage of sustainable software through which the network is adaptable to future changes, so updates are easily introduced.
Green coding also concerns software energy consumption within the following sectors:
- The infrastructure and its need for energy, which can rise or fall, depending on its complexity;
- The processing system that consumes energy in relation to the processing time and file size;
- The device through which lines of codes are processed that leads to carbon emissions;
Green coding involves structural changes as well as cultural changes. Empowering your employees to approach it and encouraging innovation is an essential step towards achieving a sustainable business. In the long run, green coding can reduce energy costs and lead to higher earnings and development discipline.
What do you think about sustainable IT infrastructures?
Digitalisation is one of the most important moments in history, but massive carbon emissions have contributed to climate change issues. Therefore, we need a new approach to IT architectures that prioritises sustainability. This new concept talks about renewable energy, cloud migration, and working with eco-friendly suppliers to make a difference.
Leave a Reply