“Bridging the Sustainability Gap: Insights Gleaned from IT Leadership”

In the present day, a IT Leadership majority of companies are actively incorporating sustainability strategies, leading to a broadening influence on many organizational leaders. This shift is particularly conspicuous and pressing for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and other senior IT personnel, given the significant contribution of IT to carbon emissions. Projections indicate that by the year 2040, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector could account for 14% of global carbon emissions .

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IT Leadership

John Solomon, Vice President and General Manager for Google ChromeOS and Education, underscores the critical nature of the global climate crisis, stating, “The situation we face is a critical one, and as a result, companies are under real pressure from all of their stakeholders.”

Under these pressing circumstances, IT leaders are required to adhere to a set of core mandates to achieve net-zero goals. A 2023 Economist Impact (EI) research report, sponsored by ChromeOS, sheds light on crucial aspects of the multifaceted role played by IT leaders. Notably, 48% of senior executives surveyed across 16 European countries report that their IT departments are tasked with collecting and analyzing data on their companies’ carbon footprints. Additionally, other sustainability priorities, such as reducing energy consumption (46%), managing electronic waste (44%), and collaborating with vendors on sustainable sourcing (42%), are deemed equally critical. Furthermore, 63% of respondents plan to procure energy-efficient end-user devices in the next three years.

Confronting the existing gap, Tom Harris, Partner for Technology, Innovation, and Alliances in Sustainability and Climate at Deloitte, identifies two core mandates for IT leaders working towards net-zero objectives. These mandates involve achieving sustainability goals within IT departments and assisting companies in reaching sustainability objectives throughout the entire enterprise.

Despite the urgency, there exists a gap between sustainability goals and the capability to attain them, as outlined in the EI report. The challenges contributing to this gap include difficulty securing investment for more energy-efficient hardware and software, along with challenges in quantifying the relative effectiveness of various potential technology investments in emission reduction .

To make strides in IT sustainability goals, IT leaders must adopt a holistic approach, considering how technology interacts with the broader organization, customers, and the global community. Effective communication is crucial in this regard, with Mr. Harris emphasizing the importance of establishing a clear and thoughtful vision for the future.

Deloitte is developing a sustainable enterprise value methodology to translate sustainability goals into tangible business value, fostering understanding among employees, leaders, customers, and other stakeholders. For example, evaluating devices for energy efficiency and total cost of ownership can contribute to market share gains, tax breaks, and other financial advantages resulting from environmentally conscious practices.

Data centers, including those powered by Google Cloud, present an opportunity to reduce the IT carbon footprint. Google utilizes AI to monitor and measure carbon emissions globally, offering tools and capabilities in AI, cloud computing, and hardware to assist IT leaders in advancing sustainability goals.

Focusing on end-user devices such as laptops and smartphones, which constitute the second-largest contributor to emissions, offers a promising avenue for carbon reduction. Extending the lifespan of devices, as exemplified by ChromeOS Flex, enables organizations to upgrade older laptops with a more energy-efficient operating system, leading to substantial cost savings, emission reductions, and a complete elimination of e-waste .

John Solomon emphasizes that IT leaders viewing technology through a sustainability lens will make different decisions, prioritizing efforts to prolong the usefulness, productivity, and profitability of devices. Google’s commitment to providing 10 years of automatic updates for Chromebooks reflects a strategy aimed at enabling customers and partners to maximize hardware investments over an extended period. Solomon concludes, “We feel confident that our software is built to deliver value, and we continue to improve and update it. We are confident that you can actually get a product today and, seven, eight, nine, and even ten years from now, still be using it. We think that’s actually a better way to live”