Sustainability and expertise methods have to turn out to be extra tightly aligned as companies set extra bold ESG objectives with a view to achieve aggressive benefit, monetary worth and an enduring optimistic affect on society and the surroundings, in response to new analysis from skilled companies agency Accenture—however solely 7 p.c of respondents have totally built-in their enterprise, expertise and sustainability methods in the present day.
All 560 firms surveyed as a part of the report, Uniting Know-how and Sustainability: The right way to Get Full Worth from Your Sustainable Know-how Technique, ranked expertise as necessary or crucial for attaining their sustainability objectives. However whereas firms see clear worth in having an built-in technique, they cite a scarcity of options and requirements (40 p.c), complexity (33 p.c) and lack of know-how of unintended penalties of expertise (20 p.c) as obstacles to reaching their objectives.
This hole between intent and motion is main firms to make trade-offs between enterprise and sustainability objectives—trade-offs that may be lowered or eradicated with a holistic, sustainable expertise technique. Chief Data Officers (CIOs) can play a important position in supporting their firm’s total transformation efforts and will have a seat on the desk on sustainability choices.
A 3-dimensional strategy to make AI inexperienced:
However most don’t—in truth, solely 49 p.c of CIOs are a part of the management crew setting sustainability objectives, and simply 45 p.c are assessed on attaining these objectives
“Each enterprise have to be a sustainable enterprise and expertise is a important and elementary enabler—from enhancing transparency and traceability in international provide chains, to serving to measure and cut back carbon emissions,” mentioned Sanjay Podder, expertise sustainability innovation lead at Accenture, in a information launch. “It’s now not merely non-obligatory to place sustainability on the core of how organizations function. A sustainable expertise technique—one which embeds sustainability in expertise, drives sustainability by expertise, and scales sustainability by partaking the ecosystem—will assist firms ship 360° worth and contribute to the achievement of their broader sustainability objectives.”
The three parts of an efficient sustainable expertise technique:
An efficient sustainable expertise technique helps drive enterprise progress and ESG efficiency by delivering on three key imperatives:
Sustainability by expertise
Utilizing the ability of expertise to allow and speed up sustainability efforts throughout the group. Ninety-two p.c of firms surveyed goal to attain net-zero targets by 2030, which would require deployment of superior applied sciences to measure, cut back and take away a corporation’s carbon footprint. Know-how can also be key for shifting towards accountable worth chains; selling sustainable decisions for purchasers; and constructing a sustainable group. Of the businesses surveyed that efficiently lowered emissions in manufacturing and operations, 70% used synthetic intelligence (AI) to do it.
Sustainability in expertise
Defending individuals and the planet by making expertise itself progressively extra sustainable. As extra individuals go browsing and using expertise will increase, so do the carbon emissions from IT. Embracing inexperienced software program that’s each carbon environment friendly and carbon conscious; constructing reliable methods that incorporate privateness, equity, transparency, robustness and accessibility; and instituting the appropriate governance mechanisms have to be prioritized. Solely two of the 560 firms surveyed mentioned they take into account vitality effectivity in any respect phases of the software program improvement lifecycle, indicating appreciable room for enchancment. The report identifies a strong inexperienced software program improvement framework that prioritizes materials emissions areas together with the software program improvement life cycle, in addition to inexperienced digital expertise, cloud, edge, knowledge facilities, AI, distributed ledger expertise and infrastructure.
Sustainability at scale
Pursuing breakthrough innovation with ecosystem companions to develop radically totally different and extra sustainable methods of doing enterprise sooner or later. No group can tackle international sustainability challenges at scale by itself. Firms should work past the boundaries of their very own organizations to fulfill the United Nations Sustainable Improvement Targets (SDGs). Forty-three p.c of firms surveyed at the moment are becoming a member of business collaborations, alliances and advocacy teams targeted on eco-friendly expertise.
How sustainable tech contributes worth in varied kinds:
“Creating and implementing a complete sustainable expertise technique—one which makes use of expertise to drive sustainability at scale whereas additionally making expertise itself extra sustainable—is now the core mission of the purpose-driven CIO,” Podder added. “The accountability is big, however the alternative to drive new sources of worth and prepared the ground to a extra sustainable future is even larger.”
Inexperienced software program framework:
Obtain the complete report right here.
The analysis was performed in September and October 2021 through an online survey. The pattern comprised of 560 CIOs, CTOs, chief sustainability officers, and people immediately reporting to them (administrators, VPs) from firms with greater than US$1 billion income. The analysis spanned 12 nations and 11 industries.
