Sustainability is becoming a huge trend in all kinds of industries; and one industry that could make a major difference is the tech industry. There has already been a significant change in attitude among tech giants, and the wider industry, and we have begun to see a turning of the tide around embracing more sustainable practices.
There are many different approaches to fostering more sustainable practices. There’s been an increase in IT Support Companies adopting this technology – Managed Service Providers UK businesses trust are providing businesses with Sustainable and Eco-Friendly IT Solutions to make use of. Sometimes it could be direct action and implementation of renewable energies, or it could be the development of tools to be used in other industries to help them be more sustainable. Both of these approaches can make a big impact.
So, what are some of the sustainable practices that a big business can commit to, as demonstrated by some of the biggest tech companies in the world?
Apple’s Solar Farms
Apple is definitely one of the leading tech giants in the world. It was born and raised in the Silicon Valley, and are known for adhering to a high standard of product quality – meaning there are is no budget Apple line, you make an investment when you buy one of their devices! Since 2018, Apple has purportedly been using 100% renewable energy all of its facilities across the planet. Their transition to 100% renewable energy has helped them mitigate the emission of up to 15 million metric tons of CO2e. This is an excellent commitment and helps set an example around how to run an organisation in a more environmentally conscious way.
Apple have gone even further, however, and have made more bold commitments to make their supply chain carbon neutral by 2030 – this means that they have invested in practices that remove carbon from either the environment or the society, at an equal rate with which they are producing carbon emissions. One example is their California Flats solar farm, which provides a portion of the energy for their corporate headquarters, thus negating some of the need for energy that emits carbon.
Microsoft’s Forest Management Tools
Microsoft is one of the leaders in home and business software. It was founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and currently headquartered in Redmond, Washington. This tech giant has also demonstrated significant sustainability credentials amongst its peers. Their range of products and services are all cloud-based, which contributes to better energy efficiency for every Microsoft customer. It helps having a Managed Services Provider London Businesses can turn to when they need assistance with Microsoft products. There are significant reasons why Cloud computing and services are the best choice for sustainable work.
To start with, it contributes to what is known as Dematerialization – the process of eliminating material products in your business through virtualisation; an example is virtualising your servers and hosting them in the Cloud, so that you will no longer need to upgrade the hardware. Or perhaps, through the use of Cloud apps and file sharing, a business can eliminate paper from its operation, and go entirely paperless.
Cloud Services utilize hyperscale datacentres – massive regional datacentres that host thousands of organisation’s data. These hyperscale datacentres are much more energy efficient than on-site servers and smaller scale datacentres, and they produce less GHG emissions relative to their size.
These are just some of the ways Microsoft is helping other businesses become more sustainable and energy efficient, but they also have an array of projects and ventures that help in other areas of sustainability – such as conservation efforts. One of their recent exploits has been the development of a tool that will help with the sustainable management of forests, potentially all across the globe. Microsoft NCX utilises high-quality satellite imagery and AI machine learning to create detailed, tree-level maps of forests. This can help mitigate labour-intensive and human error prone process of forest surveying, and help protect the biodiversity of forests and similar habitats.
Google’s Carbon-free Goal
Google’s commitment of being carbon neutral was achieved all the way back in 2007, and what is more, they have invested in enough carbon offsets to neutralise all of their carbon emissions from between 1998 and 2006; thus they are set to enter their third decade of climate action, and their latest goal for the future is even better. They are striving to be running entirely on carbon-free energy throughout their entire global infrastructure by 2030.
Whilst becoming carbon neutral is very important, it does not specifically mean that a company does not produce carbon emissions. It simply means they are balancing their own emissions through various initiatives that work to remove carbon from society or the environment, such as investment in renewable energy, or reforestation. Did you know that certain sectors use more data than others? We’ve seen how IT Support for Solicitors Solutions use a lot of cloud consumption and have to offset it in different ways. These are all very important things to be doing. Google’s goal of running on carbon-free energy could help them become carbon negative – meaning they are eliminating more carbon from the environment than they emit, which is still a rare achievement among big businesses.
Part of Google’s sustainability plan also involves deploying over 5 billion dollars’ worth of sustainability bonds worldwide, and investing in the development of carbon-free energy in parts of the world that have not yet developed it, but which are apart of Google’s global manufacturing chain.
