Sustainability has emerged as a critical issue across all industries, including the services technology industry. Companies in this sector have a vital role to play in building a sustainable future by reducing their environmental impact, adopting sustainable practices, and leveraging technology to address environmental challenges.
1. Energy consumption
One of the key areas of focus for the services technology industry is energy consumption. Data centers, cloud computing, and other IT services consume a significant amount of energy, and as demand continues to grow, the need for sustainable energy solutions becomes more urgent. To address this challenge, many companies are turning to renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric power.
2. Electronic waste
Reducing electronic waste is another crucial aspect of sustainability in the services technology industry. With rapid technological change, electronic devices have shorter lifespans, resulting in a staggering amount of e-waste. To combat this issue, companies in the services technology industry are taking steps to design products that are easy to repair, reuse, and recycle.
3. Carbon footprint
Furthermore, services technology companies are utilizing technology itself to promote sustainability. For example, cloud-based services have helped companies reduce their carbon footprint by minimizing the need for physical servers. Additionally, these companies are developing innovative solutions that enable businesses and individuals to track and reduce their energy consumption, waste generation, and carbon footprint.
4. Scarce resources
Sustainability also plays a significant role in the supply chain of the services technology industry. Companies are taking measures to ensure that their suppliers adhere to sustainable practices, from responsible sourcing of raw materials to reducing waste and emissions in the production process.
In 2015, the United Nations set 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at global challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate change, and environmental degradation.
The services technology industry can contribute meaningfully to several of these SDGs, including:
- Goal 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) by adopting renewable energy sources and promoting energy efficiency and developing products and services that assist consumers to reduce their energy consumption.
- Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) by developing technologies that improve infrastructure, increase efficiency and promote sustainable practices.
- Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) by developing smart city technologies and providing digital solutions to urban challenges.
- Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) by reducing waste and promoting circular economy practices (such as designing products for reuse, recycling, and repair).
- Goal 13 (Climate Action) by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting energy efficiency and developing technologies to address climate change.
- Goal 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) by forming partnerships with governments, NGOs, and other stakeholders to promote sustainable practices.
Cloud, artificial intelligence, data, business intelligence, analytics, machine learning – these tools can help you gain a sharp and vivid picture of your organization’s overall sustainability capabilities, and help you refine and redefine your operations and processes to align them with your mandates. These products and solutions can be woven into your business so you can fine tune your processes, your own investments and supply chain while also gaining access to insights that will help you to systematically plan your sustainability journey.
Microsoft’s Sustainable Transformation Landscape offers a sustainable business model that helps you to navigate this landscape. Mint’s long-standing relationship with Microsoft ensures you implement the best possible approach and have access to technology that will enhance your strategic goals.
Benchmarks, expectations and sustainability requirements are going to change. They can’t be set in stone because the challenges and considerations that SDGs have evolved to overcome are also changing. Organizations need flexibility and resiliency to remain ahead of expectations while ensuring that their operations, processes and systems are as responsible as possible. Mint can help you find your way with technologies that are, themselves, built on robust sustainable foundations and proven to help you meet your strategic goals.
It doesn’t have to be an overly complex and frustrating journey.
