Green IT Strategy Guide: How to Align Technology Departments With Corporate ESG Initiatives

How can IT departments and MSPs align their technology initiatives with overall sustainability strategies? Some clues and guidance emerged in this Green IT Playbook -- developed by Rackspace Technology and Smart Columbus, in partnership with the Green IT Working Group.

First, a little background. Rackspace is a multi-cloud MSP and technology solutions provider that has enterprise scale. The company's annual revenues were nearly $3 billion in 2023. Smart Columbus, by contrast, is an organization in Columbus, Ohio, focused on empowering communities across mobility, sustainability, digitization and emerging technology.

The Green IT Playbook, according to the authors, strives to:

• Educate the technology community through a series of metrics that align with a broad view of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies.
• Establish a performance baseline for the Columbus Region through self-assessment by partner organizations against the previously mentioned metrics.
• Inspire and inform through success stories from local organizations that are accelerating Green IT practices.

The playbook intro is signed simply by "Ben and Marcus." Poke around, and you'll learn that those sustainability experts are Rackspace VP of Technology and Sustainability Ben Blanquera, and Smart Columbus Project Manager Marcus Carano.

I spoke with Blanquera in mid-March 2024. At the time, he hinted that the Green IT Playbook was on the way. He also mentioned that numerous partners and team members were driving Smart Columbus forward.

Green IT Playbook: Focus Areas and Sample Metrics

Now available, the playbook contains five focus areas and 11 associated practices areas and metrics to help organizations in the Columbus Region integrate their technology departments into an organization-wide ESG approach. The resulting content could have global implications. Indeed, businesses and organizations worldwide can leverage the green IT practices in their own ESG initiatives.

Image: Example focus areas and metrics from the Columbus Green IT Playbook. Source: Green IT Playbook, Rackspace & Smart Columbus

Why MSPs, Businesses and Organizations Need Green IT Playbooks

The playbook arrives at a key time. Among the anecdotal evidence to keep in mind:

• The IT sector will consume roughly 13% of global electricity by 2030, up from 7% in 2020, according to the European Union Commission.
• The rise of generative AI applications -- which consume considerable power -- further complicates matters. Indeed, 89% of IT buyers found ESG goals more difficult to meet as a result of upgrades to their IT infrastructure for AI adoption, according to Pure Storage and Wakefield research.
• Meanwhile, U.S. electrical systems are not expanding fast enough to meet rapidly growing power needs of generative AI, Reuters reported.
• Environmental sustainability is now a Top 10 business priority for CEOs, according to Gartner.
• By 2025, 50% of CIOs will have specific performance metrics tied to energy consumption, according to Gartner.

IT Departments, MSPs and Sustainability Leaders: Working Together

Roll all of those data points together, and it's a safe bet businesses will increasingly lean on IT departments and technology partners for sustainability guidance.

Rackspace has been evolving its business to address sustainability needs and trends. For instance, the company in June 2023 promoted EVP and CTO Srini Koushik to president of AI, technology and sustainability. And as I mentioned, VP Ben Blanquera has been driving the alignment of technology and sustainability.

Anecdotal evidence suggests Rackspace is making progress on its sustainability efforts. For instance, Amazon Web Services (AWS) named Rackspace as its North America Sustainability Partner of the Year in November 2023. And the latest Rackspace ESG Report, issued in February 2024, revealed additional business milestones.

Anecdotal evidence also suggests that Smart Columbus has achieved numerous milestones involving projects, playbooks, programs and technologies that span digitalization, emerging tech, mobility and sustainability.

We'll be watching for more updates.