Why does corporate IT urgently need to be "greenified"?

The climate crisis is an alarming global danger that requires swift and ambitious global action.

Its devasting impact on the earth can only be curbed through a drastic and prompt reduction in emissions.

Cue the Paris Agreement, a treaty created by the UNFCCC and signed by 197 countries, that aims to facilitate the reduction of emissions and stabilize greenhouse gas levels. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. In order to achieve this target, we must reduce emissions by 45% by 2030 (compared to 2010) and reach net zero by 2050¹.

Companies & organisations have a critical responsibility to bring their practices in line with this global climate target.

Today businesses are more than ever driven and supported by IT capabilities. Big Data, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence & IT device markets are all projected to grow immensely in the next five years²:

Cloud Computing
+230%
by 2023
AI
+988%
by 2027
IT Devices
+13%
by 2024
Accelerating market growth comes with a massive climate cost: snowballing Co2e emissions.

Training a single AI model can emit much as CO2 as five cars in their lifetime. Big Data and Cloud Computing are responsible for ~ 3% of total emissions, which almost matches the emissions of the aviation sector ³.


...but we face a problem, how can companies decrease their emissions if they don’t track them?.

According to the Boston Consulting Group 96% of their customers have already set targets in order to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, yet only 11% are on plan to meet their targets⁴.

This is not surprising when we learn that only 9% of them are measuring their emissions comprehensively, and a whopping 81% of them do not focus on their total emissions, only parts of them⁴.

Without sound understanding of total internal and external emissions how will a company know where to focus reduction efforts? Achieving the ambitious goals set by the Paris Agreement will require companies to measure exhaustively, accurately, and frequently. But why are so many companies reportedly struggling to accurately calculate emissions? The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG-Protocol) is a worldwide acknowledged standard for measuring and managing the total CO2e emissions of companies.

It has identified three scopes to measure emissions (right figure). Until recently companies mainly focused on Scope 1 and Scope 2, only their direct emissions and completely omitted their indirect emissions from Scope 3 such as those incurred through business travel and emissions arising through use of their products. These indirect emissions represent a significant amount of emissions and when left out lead to a exceptionally inaccurate representation of actual total emissions.

SCOPE 1
Emissions

(Direct)

Emissions from onsite generation and fleet fuel consumption.

SCOPE 2
Emissions

(Indirect)

Emissions from power plant providing purchased electricity.

SCOPE 3
Emissions

(Supplemental)

Emissions from indirect sources, such as company travel and supply chain management.

Source: www.constellation.com⁵



Introducing our solution: Greenify!

Our mission is to enable corporate IT carbon footprint tracking and reduction and support companies on their journey to a greener and brighter future.

Greenify offers an intuitive, sophisticated solution to any small or medium-sized company or organization looking to overcome issues related to tracking their corporate IT footprint. We offer a WebApp which can calculate, track and improve the carbon footprint of your corporate IT.

Through an easy to use Web interface users can simply enter data relevant to IT dimensions, such as IT devices, servers, cooling systems, travel expenses and much more. This data will then be used to calculate the total corporate IT CO2e emissions, covering Scope 1, 2 and 3. The results will be displayed in a user friendly dashboard which will help you identify your biggest improvement opportunities and track your emission development over time.

But that’s not all, Greenify also offers individual guidance on how to improve your carbon footprint.

Click here to check out a video demo on our YouTube channel!

Sources:

¹ https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/net-zero-coalition
² https://bcgplatinion.com/insights/why-green-it-is-critical-for-the-sustainable-future-of-yourcompany/
³ https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/06/06/239031/training-a-single-ai-model-can-emitas-much-carbon-as-five-cars-in-their-lifetimes/
⁴ https://www.bcg.com/publications/2021/measuring-emissions-accurately
⁵ https://blogs.constellation.com/sustainability/setting-sustainability-goals-and-meeting-themwith-reduction-targets/

¹ https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/net-zero-coalition
² https://bcgplatinion.com/insights/why-green-it-is-critical-for-the-sustainable-future-of-yourcompany/
³ https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/06/06/
239031/training-a-single-ai-model-can-emitas-much-carbon-as-five-cars-in-their-lifetimes/
⁴ https://www.bcg.com/publications/2021/
measuring-emissions-accurately
⁵ https://blogs.constellation.com/sustainability/
setting-sustainability-goals-and-meeting-themwith-reduction-targets/