How to Boost your Company's Sustainability Efforts?

Many firms have long had sustainability strategies in place to reduce waste, such as recycling or printing reductions. Organizations are now looking to their technological use to help them improve the long-term viability of their business. 

According to a recent Wall Street Journal story citing a survey performed by the IBM Institute for Business Value, C-suite technology leaders expect sustainability to be the area where technology has the most impact in their organisations in the next three years. The survey interviewed 5,000 C-suite technology leaders from 29 industries and 45 locations around the world, including chief information officers and chief technology officers. Process automation, security, and risk were ranked lower by respondents than sustainability. 

The following are some specific steps that organisations are examining in order to strengthen their sustainability efforts: 

• Taking the leap to the cloud: 
   By 2020, data centres will account for 1% of worldwide energy use. Moving a company's computing to the cloud can help cut carbon emissions. Major cloud providers say that they can reduce emissions by using renewable energy sources. Indeed, one study referenced in the Wall Street Journal article revealed that running business applications in the cloud saves 80 percent more energy than on-premises equipment. Furthermore, a company can scale its cloud usage up and down depending on its needs. 

• Reducing the amount of energy used in current data centres: 
  Organizations are seeking for solutions to cut energy use in operations that can't or won't go to the cloud. Because data centres require electricity and water to cool, corporations may choose to deploy data centres in colder climates, which require less energy to operate their cooling systems. 

• Employing "Green coding":  
  Green coding is software that is written to utilise as few processing instructions and memory as possible to save energy. Green coding allows an organization's programmes to function more efficiently and consume less energy. 

• Examining sourcing partnerships: 
  Organizations are also assessing their sourcing and supply chain relationships to ensure that they are compatible with their sustainability goals.

When it comes to information technology decisions, several factors are considered, and sustainability is fast becoming one of them. If you are an organization that envisions becoming a part of the solution to relevant issues of today, we highly recommend you employ the above-mentioned best practices to drive that vision to fruition. Profitability is incomplete without the sustainability that it should come along with. Now is our chance to act, and take a step towards a healthier planet!

Exalogic recognizes deeply the need for corporate organisations to step up to the responsibility of sustainability. Partnering with the Good Living Trust, a Bangalore- based non-profit organisations, we brought to life the rejuvenation of several lakes in the Doddaballapur district of Bangalore, India. The same initiative has led to the adjoining villages to now be self-reliant in terms of food and water, restoring the regions' once lost glory.

Visit us on this link to get a better insight on our Corporate Social Responsibility projects and connect with us to help you aid your journey on the same!