Sustainability is no longer just a tick box for businesses but a growing priority across all sectors. Emerging sustainability regulations and consumer demand for transparency, is driving organisations to drive long-term sustainability efforts across their infrastructure and IT Services. If you haven’t started your sustainability journey yet, there are many opportunities for businesses to start straight away and to make a real impact on reducing your company’s carbon footprint.
On-premises data centres
If you have an on-premises data centre and servers, by default you’re generating a lot of heat. Many organisations in this situation are working to reduce their emissions by using cooling techniques such as filtered free air cooling and liquid cooling. Servers require a significant amount of power, so if you’re set on long term use of in-house servers, it’s time to investigate renewable sources of electricity to reduce your emissions. Alternatively, businesses have an opportunity to make a quick win when they migrate to Cloud services.
Public Cloud: A Pioneer of Sustainability
The public cloud offers organisations an immediate solution to reduce their carbon emissions, energy waste and costs as they can take advantage of economies of scale offered by shared data centres. The flexibility that Cloud solutions offer also allows businesses to scale up (and down) their capacity when required so not wasting resources and reducing costly changes to their infrastructure.
Microsoft’s Cloud for Sustainability
Cloud vendors are also leading the way with their own commitment to sustainability. Microsoft have pledged to reach carbon-negative status by 2030 and have also invested in sustainable energy and cooling in their own data centres. This month, Microsoft launches its Microsoft’s Cloud for Sustainability which enables ESG (environmental, social and governance) stakeholders to track their carbon emissions from different applications via reports such as a sustainability scoreboard that tracks carbon emissions against organisational goals.
At Transputec, we too are taking proactive steps in becoming carbon neutral by the 2026. Part of our Environmental Management System (EMS) strategy is working with supply chain partners and third parties who share this commitment so together we can drive CO2 emission down to net zero. As a Microsoft Gold partner, we’re delighted that Microsoft has launched Microsoft’s Cloud for Sustainability and we’ll be working with clients to integrate this into their Cloud solutions.
AWS Sustainability Pillar
Similarly, Amazon has committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 and 100% renewable energy by 2030. AWS also have a Sustainability Pillar that will help organisations learn, measure, and improve their workloads using environmental best practices for cloud computing. The overall aim of the pillar is to track your progress toward policies and best practices that support a more sustainable future. Transputec is an AWS Service Path Select Tier Partner and we’re partnering with our clients to leveraging AWS tools such as this to deliver effective and sustainable Cloud solutions.
In addition to the benefits of shared data centres, Cloud technology has transformed that way organisations work, allowing employees to work effectively from home – which in turn reduces travelling to work and associated travel carbon emissions.
The shift to a carbon-free economy is accelerating and companies that are not preparing themselves may see their businesses suffer. If you haven’t started already, now’s the time to act and make a positive choice in migrating to the Cloud and commit to continuing to reduce your IT Services’ environmental impact.
Get in touch with us to discuss how we can support you to migrate to the Cloud and leverage Cloud services to transform your business and accelerate your sustainability strategy.
Stuart Salt is the Director of Service for Transputec, an IT Support Company based in London. Stuart is responsible for all professional services and managed services delivered to Transputec’s clients and above all is passionate about the customer experience and digital transformation.
