CIOs (chief information officers), backed by boardroom and shareholder mandates, are charting a path toward sustainable technologies. But those CIOs will need savvy technology partners to assist that arduous journey. Among the proof points:
- Environmental sustainability is now a Top 10 business priority for CEOs, according to Gartner.
- Nearly 60% of decision makers are concerned about the strength of their company's sustainability strategy, according to an enterprise survey from CCS Insight and NTT Data.
- By 2025, 50% of CIOs will have specific performance metrics tied to energy consumption, according to Gartner.
- By 2026, 75% of organizations will increase their business engagement with IT vendors that have clear sustainability goals. Those same CIOs will seek to replace vendors that don't have sustainability goals, according to Gartner.
- By 2027, 75% of organizations will have implemented a data center infrastructure sustainability program, up from less than 5% in 2022, Gartner predicted.
- At least 10,000 companies across America, Canada and the European Union will need to step up their sustainability reporting under the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), according to estimates from Refinitiv, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
- The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, signed by President Biden in August 2022, includes massive clean energy incentives.
Sustainability: Where CEOs Need Help From Technology Partners
Among the biggest areas of concern: 40% of executives believe the right solutions aren’t available or not mature enough to meet their sustainable technology goals, according to Accenture.
Additional hurdles include:
- Nearly half (43%) of CEOs globally say their sustainability efforts have been hampered due to the geopolitical environment, with that number even higher for CEOs from developing countries (51%), according to Accenture research.
- When examining net zero targets set by the world’s largest companies, Accenture also found that nearly all will miss their own targets unless they double the rate of carbon emissions reductions by 2030, the report found.
Sustainable Technology Partners: The Market Opportunity Explained
Amid that backdrop, CEOs, CIOs and chief sustainability officers (CSOs) need to find and engage technology partners across three opportunities, according to Accenture:
- Sustainability by tech: Using technology innovation to drive sustainability initiatives and transform the business model.
- Sustainability in tech: Measuring the ESG impacts of technology, and working to ensure it is designed, developed, and deployed sustainably.
- Sustainability at scale: Orchestrating an ecosystem of businesses, technology companies, startups, non-profits and government organizations to harness technology in completely new ways to solve the “wicked problems” of this decade and deliver sustainable outcomes.
Amid that backdrop, Accenture says leading CEOs are already embedding sustainability into their businesses through:
- Launching new products and services for sustainability (63%),
- enhancing sustainability data collection across their value chains (55%); and
- investing in renewable energy sources (49%).
Moreover, nearly half (49%) are transitioning to circular business models, and 40% are increasing R&D funding for sustainable innovation, Accenture said.
Sustainable Technology Partners: New Service Catalogs Required
Meanwhile, technology partners must overhaul their service catalogs, evolve their talent pools and align with new customer needs. Indeed, it's time to push beyond traditional cloud and managed IT services to address:
- Cloud-based sustainability projects;
- carbon footprint measurement;
- advanced energy grid management;
- sustainable energy (wind, solar, hydroelectric & bioenergy);
- sustainable building management systems (physical security, billing, electrical, HVAC and other controls);
- sustainable automation (artificial intelligence, IoT monitoring); and
- plenty more.
Not by coincidence, we launched Sustainable Technology Partner to help you navigate the opportunities and challenges ahead.
