Green IT: Sustainable Technology

At the beginning of this year, in another article we published, we talked about the different IT trends and challenges that we would be facing in 2022. Today we come to develop one of these themes that we had already anticipated would be on the rise this year, and we can confirm that this has been the case.

Green IT, Green Technology or Sustainable Technology are some of the nomenclatures used to refer to this new approach to IT investment, but what exactly is it?

This trend is fundamentally based on encouraging companies to reduce the carbon footprint they register in our ecosystem every year. To this end, the channel of suppliers, manufacturers and end customers in the IT world are working to develop mechanisms for producing and manufacturing components in a more responsible manner and with lower CO2 emissions, as well as reducing the generation of waste from these processes.

The ultimate desired goal is to achieve "Net Zero", which means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible

In addition, new models of the latest generation of low power consumption IT equipment are being established which also help to reduce the carbon footprint.

The ultimate desired goal is to achieve "Net Zero", which means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with some residual emissions being reabsorbed from the atmosphere through, for example, the ocean and forests.

How does responsible energy use become a reality?

There are a multitude of ways to promote responsible energy use, ranging from everyday gestures to major investments in rethinking manufacturing and business processes:

• Producing hardware in a more resource and energy efficient way. We should encourage the use of hardware with environmental certifications such as ISO 14000 with all its variants concerning carbon footprint reduction, ISO 5001 concerning energy efficiency management, etc.
• Manufacturing products with longer warranties and longer life cycles.
• Creating more energy-efficient products and look for usage patterns that minimise energy consumption.
• Promoting recycling and responsible management of ICT waste.
• Minimising the use of paper in companies and administration. Nowadays, there are a multitude of print control systems that should be encouraged and that have been proven by many successful cases to represent great savings for the corporations that apply them.
• Virtualising and centralising as much as possible the company's IT systems, using the cloud whenever possible. Storing data in certified cloud computing centres consumes far fewer resources than storing it on the company's own internal servers.
• Encouraging teleworking and videoconferencing instead of face-to-face meetings. Not only do we promote savings at the corporate level, but we are also directly reducing the number of employees' journeys and the fuel consumption that this entails.
• Switch off office devices or put them in standby mode when not in use.

What does the use or promotion of sustainable technology bring to a corporation?

Currently, this issue is gaining momentum not only in the largest companies in the country but also at lower levels corporately speaking, and the corporate image surrounding Green IT is being more important over the time. Those companies that invest in sustainability and transparently publish their initiatives, their results and even their carbon footprint are getting closer and closer to a part of society that is highly sensitive to environmental issues.

In order to carry out these technical reports on carbon footprint contribution and reduction, studies and audits can be carried out to endorse the measures applied. Likewise, consultancies can be commissioned to help companies to take the necessary actions and the strategic plan for the change to be adopted, investments to be made, etc.

The long-term economic savings from the reduction of electronic components for maintenance and energy supply are obvious and, in turn, promote that corporate responsibility that can naturally foster the social change that the ecosystem requires to reduce climate change.

Examples

Companies such as Iberdrola, Acciona, Banco Santander and Telefónica publish their annual sustainability reports in which they reflect important sections such as:

• Sustainability Statutes
• Code of Ethics
• Policies and commitments
• Risks and opportunities
• Implementation of the "United Nations Global Compact" COP
• Evolution of the main indicators of sustainable commitment
• Inclusive and sustainable growth

At Izertis we support, encourage and help companies to draw up sustainability and carbon footprint reduction plans, as well as in the implementation of all the necessary measures reflected in this article in order to achieve the corresponding certifications and reduce the carbon footprint on the environment.