Employees and customers alike expect Australian organisations to demonstrate genuine efforts toward sustainability. Here’s how IT can be at the centre of these efforts.
In 2015, The Paris Agreement, a landmark global agreement across 196 nations and parties acknowledging the dangers posed by climate change, was signed. But despite all of the efforts at awareness-raising, the amount of carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere is increasing. According to Australia’s CSIRO research, the world has fewer than seven years to slash carbon emissions by half to keep the impact of climate change to a relative minimum.
The IT function within organisations can drive efficiencies that result in lower carbon being emitted by the company overall. With employees expecting to see their organisations show leadership in this way, leveraging IT to support sustainability can also improve morale, employee engagement and retention.
More broadly, countries like Australia, which have access to the kind of technologies and capabilities to drive efficiency and the wealth to invest in them, need to be more proactive in furthering the reduction of emissions. Companies within nations like Australia that do take a genuine leadership position on this will benefit commercially and reputationally.
Despite the awareness that the world is on borrowed time to address the dangers posed by climate change, progress in actually deploying solutions has been slow. A significant part of the problem is that many of the efforts businesses are committing to are questionable in terms of their impact.
Many organisations, for example, pledge to plant trees in an effort to “offset” their carbon footprint by increasing the amount of vegetation there is to capture the carbon. This method, however, has been broadly criticised.
Other companies use a carbon credit market, purchasing “credits” from low-polluting companies to account for their higher emissions. But this too is highly controversial, and in Australia, whistleblowers have called it an outright “sham.”
PREMIUM: Companies should have a detailed environmental policy to improve sustainability.
With these being such common approaches to the “E” in environmental and social governance, there has been increasing scepticism that organisations are doing enough for the environment. The concept of “greenwashing,” where companies spend more effort and money in marketing themselves as environmentally friendly than actually minimising their impact on the environment, has become a common accusation.
Study after study shows that there are real benefits to organisations that genuinely grapple with their environmental impact. At the recent Gartner ReimagineHR Conference in Sydney, Aaron McEwan, the vice president of advisory in the Gartner HR practice, said, “There is currently a huge opportunity for HR leaders to build a stronger culture of sustainability and realise these engagement benefits.”
McEwan cited a study that found that 84% of employees believe their organisation lacks a strong sustainability culture, and 67% of employees rate sustainability as “highly important.” McEwan added that it was important for organisations to recognise the grassroots nature that needs to happen within ESG, and organisations that can do so will have a happier and more engaged workforce.
“When employees can see, understand and contribute to their organisation’s sustainability objectives, HR leaders and managers reap the benefits of increased engagement, and organisations will get closer to achieving their goals,” McEwan said at the event.
For IT, there is a real opportunity to be a champion for sustainability, and leading organisations will allow IT professionals to make this a priority.
IT is often considered to be one of the big carbon emitting lines of business, but it’s actually not. Research suggests that technology only accounts for 4%-6% of electricity production, with electricity being only one of many carbon emissions sources.
SEE: Leading organisations are deploying a variety of tactics to achieve lower carbon footprints.
That’s not to say that IT doesn’t have a carbon footprint, but many organisations will find that by relying on technology, the efficiencies found will also reduce the overall footprint. Some examples of this include:
With the increasing use of artificial intelligence, IoT, 5G and other advanced technologies, there is an opportunity for IT teams to look to new innovations that will further drive a lower carbon footprint across all lines of business.
Technology is a relatively efficient and low-impact source of emissions. Therefore, the more IT teams can be empowered to develop innovative solutions to shift the operational burden to it, the better organisations are going to be able to lower their carbon footprints. This can then be achieved without relying on ESG “tricks” like carbon credits, which many staff and customers alike will see as “greenwashing” the issue.
Matthew is a Sydney-based multi-disciplinary journalist that has covered IT for 15 years. In particular, he covers B2B IT and other channel topics in the APAC region. In addition to Channel Insider, Matthew’s work has been published on ARN, where he previously served as the editor, as well as CRN and AFR. On the side, Matthew is an award-winning arts and entertainment critic and author, and he also participates on the judging panel for the Australian IT Journalism Awards.
