6 minute read
TURNING THE HEAT DOWN
AS THE PANDEMIC TRANSFORMS THE WAY WE DO BUSINESSES, ENTERPRISES NEED TO INTEGRATE SUSTAINABILITY INTO THEIR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION BLUEPRINT TO ACHIEVE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES.
Over the past few years, the business case for green IT has faded as organisations grappled with challenging economic conditions, focusing on bottom line rather than being ecofriendly. However, the pandemic has brought green tech back on the radar as many enterprises now realise it is a vital ingredient to achieve operational efficiencies and productivity gains. The shift towards green IT is triggered by the growing concerns around climate change and some exciting new technology trends that help companies to make sustainability part of their core DNA to reduce environmental impact.
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Recently, the historical Paris Agreement has charted a new course for countries to adopt green technologies, and spurred a range of technology use cases and applications in the path towards environmental sustainability. Industry pundits say some of the most exciting green tech trends to watch in the near future are AI, cloud storage, and data science and analytics.
“As we reflect on the impact of the pandemic on many industries in the Middle East and beyond, we come
to understand that the urgency of addressing climate change has driven key decision makers to prioritise sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices at the heart of their business strategies,” says Elena Avesani, Director, Global Sustainability at Oracle.
She says organisations are implementing several emerging technologies to achieve their sustainability goals, and one of them is environmental sensors/ IoT. “Businesses can enable alwayson data feeds by instrumenting ecosystems with sensors, allowing them to accurately monitor environmental health, identify human impacts on natural resources, improve response times to fires and other emergencies, improve traffic efficiency and help create more sustainable cities, among other things.”
Fady Richmany, Sr. Director and General Manager – UAE, Dell Technologies, says one of the most prominent sustainable trends we will see is an increased shift to the cloud and green data centers. “As more enterprises are turning to green technology, they are investing in on-premise green data centres that bring them greater energy efficiency. Green data centres can feature fully managed hybrid cloud solutions that combine the simplicity and agility of the public cloud with the security and control of on-premises infrastructure while also cutting costs by reducing energy and power consumption. This is becoming both a convenient system and a sustainable one for enterprises.”
He says we will also see 5G technology increase its role in sustainability with use cases that drive positive change across society, such as precision farming, remote healthcare, and education. It is estimated that 5G-enabled use cases will cut down 1.7 billion tonnes of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, according to a report by STL partners.
“We will also see an increase in work management automation through data capture, storage, and utilisation as daily work processes get automated through low-carbon technology. As the UAE continues to adopt effective policies and strategies as part of its UAE Energy Strategy 2050, we will see more of these trends that will help foster a green economy,” Richmany says. Advances in artificial intelligence are also helping companies to understand their ecosystems and optimise energy systems.
“In the global transition to renewable energy, AI could be the answer to making decentralised energy grids more effective. By applying AI, decentralised grids can balance electricity supply and demand needs in real-time as well as optimise energy consumption and storage that lower rates,” says Stephen Gill, Academic Head of the School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot-Watt University Dubai.
Avesani from Oracle shares a similar opinion: “Organisations may use AI’s continuous learning skills and pattern recognition to better comprehend the scope of emissions and environmental damage, as well as model the best transformation scenarios to pursue.”
With customers more likely to purchase from companies with a CSR mandate, many global tech vendors are making sustainability a key market differentiator. Last year, Oracle committed to the goal of having its cloud be 100% renewable by 2025 and expanded its commitment to sustainability by pledging to power our global operations, including its facilities, with 100 percent renewable energy.
“Moreover, we are focused on building a circular cloud infrastructure
Elena Avesani
Fady Richmany
— which taps into energy efficiency, resource efficiency, renewable energy and elasticity and is about everything from design to delivery to operations and servicing to equipment retirement. The cloud is also critical in this regard in enabling us to simplify our prior business practices of shipping hardware and parts to tens of thousands of customers. Today, we have a much smaller set of Oracle-run data centers that we’re maintaining, which enables significant opportunities to lower the overall environmental footprint of the technological capabilities which we deliver,” says Avesani.
On its part, Dell looks for every opportunity to embed sustainable practices across its portfolio and a key part of its circular design approach is to engineer waste out of our product lifecycles and to recycle materials back in.
“We’ve created a new supply chain that recovers ocean-bound plastics, putting them back into our packaging instead of letting them wash out to sea. We work with suppliers to collect, process and mix plastics with other recycled material to create molded trays used for packaging select products. Our products also have an efficient design that requires fewer resources and maximise recycled and renewable materials, as we strive to take back as much as we produce. We also champion the people who build our products, insisting upon ethical practices, respect, and dignity for all workers,” says Richmany.
Why do CIOs need to care about sustainability and climate change?
Climate change is a global crisis; it needs global solutions, not fragmented responses from some quarters of industry or stakeholders. According to a recent report by IDC, organisations will yield greater value by merging digital transformation (DX) and sustainability initiatives.
“The decisions CIOs take regarding data infrastructure and technology investments can influence change and initiatives that cut across the organisation and accelerate sustainability targets. CIOs are well placed to spearhead DX and to create operating models that harness data for valuable insights. On the DX journey, an effective CIO can draw support from several leaders on strategy, enable enterprise-wide cultural change, and deploy emerging technologies that bring transformation to scale,” says Gill from Heriot-Watt.
Avesani says taking a reactive approach to climate threats and risks is no longer an option. There are expectations for organisations to do their part in sustainability efforts and supply chains for meeting sustainability goals -- this means, having these objectives in C-Suite agendas is imperative.
“As CIOs and CTOs are the drivers of the choices around technology investments within a business, it is crucial that they are conscious, wellinformed and opportunistic when it comes to making the right decisions to ensure that the core business operations are led by responsible carbon management. They can play a leading role in their organisation’s energy management and sustainability initiatives by uncovering hidden opportunities to reduce consumption and associated costs,” she adds.
Richmany from Dell says many organisations have already started implementing carbon-neutral strategies and goals. “CIOs and CTOs need to ensure that it is a core part of their strategies to embed sustainability and ethical practices into what they do, as they have an important role to play in advocating for sustainable business models. There is a big opportunity to see how technology can be used to support research, mitigation efforts and climate-positive solutions. Not only that, but green IT can also help cut costs where smart technology is in use and recycled materials can help encourage a circular economy,” he sums up.
