3

The Fundamental Building Blocks of a Sustainable IT Practice

We will move to a low-carbon world because nature will force us or because policy will guide us. If we wait until nature forces us, the cost will be astronomical.

– Christiana Figueres

In Part 1 of the book, we focus on the why – why is climate change an imminent threat to humanity? – and understand the role sustainable plays in the transition toward a more sustainable future. Part 2 of the book focuses on the what – what are the critical building blocks of a Sustainable IT practice? In this chapter, you will learn about the critical building blocks of a Sustainable IT practice. This is an introductory chapter for Part 2, What Are Sustainable IT Practices?, of the book. It introduces the subsequent chapters, where we will go to great lengths to explore each key topic. This chapter will give you a brief introduction to data centers and the cloud, applications and data, IT hardware management, energy resource management vendor management and IT procurement and sustainability by IT.

The main objective of this chapter is to introduce you to several tools to add to your toolbox to enable you to work toward a more sustainable future methodically.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • Data centers and the cloud
  • Applications and data
  • IT hardware management
  • Resource management
  • Leveraging your buying power
  • Sustainability by IT

By the end of this chapter, you will have learned about the primary high-level concepts you can utilize to lower your carbon footprint and reduce electronic waste (e-waste).

The unprecedented growth of IT

As we have seen in the previous chapters, IT has an impact on the environment but also leads to a series of direct and indirect impacts. The entire ICT sector emits around 3-4% (UN Environment Programme n.d.) of global greenhouse gases, and data centers account for 1-2% of global electricity use and greenhouse gas emissions (Kamiya 2021). It will significantly increase the environmental impact unless we find other, more sustainable ways to deliver IT.

In the last decade, we have seen massive growth in internet traffic and data center workloads. We have observed a two-fold increase in internet users and a 15-fold increase in global internet traffic (Kamiya 2021). Fortunately, due to significant improvements in energy efficiency, the energy to power data centers worldwide has remained flat at around 1-2%. Figure 3.1 illustrates the growth in internet traffic between 2010 and 2020, data center workloads, and data center energy use:

Figure 3.1 – Increase in internet traffic, data center workloads, and data center energy use, 2010–2020 (IEA 2021)

Figure 3.1 – Increase in internet traffic, data center workloads, and data center energy use, 2010–2020 (IEA 2021)

Although digitalization, hyperconnectivity, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) bring positive outcomes for the environment, unfortunately, they have the potential to become significant emitters of greenhouse gases. The increased need for digital services also translates into new data centers, computer power, storage, network equipment, and end user IT equipment such as notebooks, smartphones, and tablets to operate them. Today, IT is far from sustainable.

We fully recognize that each starting point and nature of business is different; therefore, your journey forward will look different. The important thing is to carefully assess what key actions you will require to set you on a trajectory toward a more sustainable future. This chapter will dig deeper into those core concepts and dissect how you can make more conscious, sustainable decisions.

Sustainable IT reference model

In this book, we will cover a wide range of topics spanning many IT disciplines. To be able to follow along, we will reference the Sustainable IT reference model© frequently throughout the book. (Sundberg 2021) illustrated in Figure 3.2:

Figure 3.2 – Sustainable IT reference model

Figure 3.2 – Sustainable IT reference model

The sustainable IT reference model encompasses the key topics regarding sustainability in IT that we will cover throughout the book. The reference model consists of three primary actors: sustainable IT enterprise, data center and cloud providers, and utility providers. Let us look at their responsibilities:

  • The sustainable IT enterprise is responsible for sustainability “in” the enterprise, data centers, and the cloud. This means that the enterprise is responsible for their IT hardware (computers, smartphones, tablets, printers, etc.), what they place in the data centers and the cloud, such as applications, custom-developed software, data, and information. This also includes the information and cyber security in the environment.
  • Data center(s) and cloud provider(s) are responsible for sustainability “of” data centers and the cloud. This means that the data center or cloud provider is responsible for everything surrounding the data center and cloud infrastructure such as land, buildings, connectivity, servers, storage, databases, and resource management (energy, water, and waste). This also includes the physical and digital security of the data centers and the cloud.
  • Utility provider(s) are responsible for sustainably “powering” enterprises, data centers, and the cloud. This means providing energy through the grid from preferably renewable energy sources. Some bi-directional grids can also retrieve excess heat and water from a data center or cloud provider.

Each actor has a certain number of capabilities, and each of them fulfills an essential role in forming a sustainable IT ecosystem. As we move through the book, the essential capabilities will be highlighted throughout the subsequent chapters.

Data centers and the cloud

In 2020, data centers globally devoured between 200–250 TWh of electricity, roughly accumulating to 1-2% of global consumption (Kamiya 2021). This does not include crypto mining, which roughly consumed 100 TWh of electricity in 2020. Data centers and network links are the engine room of the digital economy, providing the backbone of connectivity and the internet as we know it today. Data centers are a very resource-intense operation, and the demand keeps surging, so it is critical to set a path toward a sustainable digital infrastructure.

No matter whether you house your servers, storage, or network equipment in your own data centers, outsource them to a hosting provider, or place them with one of the global cloud hyperscalers such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM, Oracle, Tencent, or Alibaba, it is probably one of your most energy resource-intense operations. Moving from on-premises to the cloud comes with several business benefits, such as a higher speed of innovation, agility, and global scalability, along with several sustainable IT benefits such as access to renewable energy compute and storage, higher resource utilization, and hardware efficiency.

Optimizing your data center and cloud operations is one of the biggest unlocks to ensure the transition to a sustainable IT practice, by utilizing modern best practices and renewable energy sources.

The chapter includes case studies from Sophia Flucker, Director at Operational Intelligence Ltd, on data center life cycle assessments; Lakshmanan “Laks” Vaidyanathan, General Manager and Global Practice Head for Datacenter and Hybrid Cloud Services at Wipro Limited, on the sustainability benefits of moving from on-premises to the cloud; and finally, EcoDataCenter, which is one of the first data center providers in the world that can offer their customers net-positive hosting.

In Chapter 4, Data Center and Cloud, we will go to great lengths to cover how you can optimize your data center or cloud workloads by improving power and cooling efficiency, hardware efficiency, and compute utilization, utilizing cloud-native application architecture, and ensuring you are running on renewable energy.

Applications and data

In today’s rapidly changing business environment, having a flexible IT landscape is a crucial enabler in driving digital business transformation. Unfortunately, it is not always the case that the existing IT environment can meet these new demands. Corporations, organizations, and governments tend to have hundreds of applications and even thousands for a number of reasons. These types of applications can range from legacy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, HR systems, payroll systems, and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) to homegrown custom-built applications or even legacy mainframe systems. This is due to the accumulation of applications over time, strategic business initiatives, the adaptation of new technology, mergers and acquisitions, shadow IT initiatives, and organizational changes. Unsurprisingly, a significant part of IT budgets is spent on developing, operating, and managing applications. Research indicates that 75%–80% of IT budgets are spent on this category within the financial services sectors (Grotty and Horrocks 2017). There is a huge savings potential in rationalizing your application portfolio from a cost perspective and cutting your emissions. A report from Infosys suggests that as much as $2 million can be generated in cost savings due to application rationalization (Infosys 2018).

Managing your application portfolio is a complex endeavor, from prioritizing hundreds or thousands of applications to the solution architecture and managing the efficiency and effectiveness of a single application. There are also significant benefits in introducing sustainable software development practices for a single application to reduce resource consumption, overhaul data architecture and data life cycle management, and optimize chatty interfaces to remove excessive data transfers.

The chapter includes case studies from André Christ, the CEO and founder of LeanIX, on how to build a sustainable enterprise architecture, Asim Husain, Executive Director, Green Software Foundation, on sustainable software development and Elsa Westin, Sustainability IT lead and co-founder of Gaia Generation, on how to measure your CO2e footprint in the cloud.

In Chapter 5, Application and Data, we will cover both aspects of optimizing your application portfolio through application rationalization and infusing sustainable software development to optimize a single application.

IT hardware management

With the entire ICT sector emitting around 3-4% (UN Environment Programme n.d.) of global greenhouse gases, ICT equipment is a major contributing factor. Additionally, the sector is a major contributor to surging e-waste, including the mining of finite earth metals but also social implications such as poor working conditions in factories and human rights violations. Just like our business models need to transition from a linear economy to a circular economy, IT needs to do the same. IT is constantly under cost pressure to deliver more with less, and transitioning to circular IT hardware management helps maximize the value of IT investments, reduce the use of natural resources, and minimize e-waste.

Throughout the entire life cycle of IT assets, sustainable practices can be applied to design durable and modular products, remove hazardous substances from the manufacturing process and the product itself, prolong the product life cycle, buy energy-efficient products, upgrade, refurbish, and minimize waste. Additionally, prolonging the longevity of IT hardware leads to tangible financial benefits by reducing the overall spending on buying new equipment. Many of these circular solutions exist today, and we will explore how they can be utilized.

Roughly 80% of greenhouse gas emissions occur in the manufacturing phase. This means that before you receive a new notebook, tablet, or smartphone in your hand, 80% of the greenhouse gas emissions have already been consumed by producing the device. During the device’s lifetime, 14%–16% of the total greenhouse gas emissions are consumed. The emission of greenhouse gases during the usage phase is very much dependent on the end user’s access to renewable energy or not. If the device is powered on fossil fuel, it will have significantly higher greenhouse gas emissions than if it were powered on hydro, wind, or solar energy. Additionally, it is essential to understand that for end user ICT equipment, such as computers, tablets, and smartphones, most carbon emissions come from embodied carbon emissions due to the data centers serving them with Google searches, social media interactions, the storage of documents, the streaming of media, and more. Today, the way we make, use, and recycle ICT equipment tends to follow a linear path instead of a circular one, and there exist very few financial incentives for hardware manufacturers to make the transition.

The single most contributing factor to reducing greenhouse gas emissions of ICT equipment is prolonging the hardware’s longevity for as long as possible. Today, most computer manufacturers and telecommunications companies make it easy for people to acquire new computers, tablets, and smartphones every 2 to 3 years and do not put nearly enough focus on takeback or buyback schemes. According to TCO Certified, greenhouse gases can be reduced by up to 30% by prolonging the lifespan of a product by 2 years (TCO Certified 2022).

The chapter includes case studies from Stephen Fuller, a supply chain management and senior developer of supply chain and chemical management criteria for TCO Certified, on how worker rights can help leverage the circular transition. Also included are case studies from Helena Babelon, Head of IT Sustainability, and David Scrivner, IT Sustainability Specialist/Asset Recovery Manager at Electrolux, sharing how IT asset disposition (ITAD) fits with the Electrolux sustainability strategy.

Chapter 6, IT Hardware Management, will explore how circular IT hardware management practices can solve many pressing sustainability challenges from a social and environmental perspective and, at the same time, deliver financial benefits on the bottom line.

Energy resource management

Resource management is the practice of improving the resource efficiency of energy, water, and materials – to do more with less. As we saw in Chapter 1, Our Most Significant Challenge Ahead, the energy sector accounts for 24 gigatons of CO2 emissions, which is 41% of the total number of emissions per year. This is primarily because energy sources draw from fossil fuels such as coal and oil instead of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, water turbines, and geothermal. By 2035, global energy consumption is projected to double. Making the switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is paramount to staying within the 1.5°C targets, while, at the same time, meeting the surging demand in the next 10–15 years. There is a close link between energy and water. 90% of global power generation is water-intensive (UN 2015). Having water as part of the strategic plan while moving to renewable energy sources is key.

Additionally, ensuring efficient resource utilization is a key topic because IT assets tend to be underutilized, and by optimizing them, a vast amount of energy and natural resources such as rare minerals, metals, and plastics can be saved.

The chapter includes a point of view from Tony Tiyou, the CEO and founder of Renewables in Africa, on the importance of holding the line on energy, the intersection between IT and the energy sector, and his vision for renewable energy in Africa.

Chapter 7, Energy Resource Management, will detail how we can improve energy resource efficiency, switch to renewable energy sources, and optimize our resources. Depending on where you operate globally, access to renewable energy sources might be scarce, but we will explore different ways to mitigate that gap.

Leveraging buying power

The financial sector has a significant impact on financial markets by controlling access to capital. Similarly, vendor management and IT procurement plays a significant role in transforming your vendor landscape. As the general trend moves toward “as-a-service models,” the shift of greenhouse gas emissions moves from your internal scopes 1 and 2 to external scope 3. Just because you get rid of something internally and transition it to a vendor does not mean that you are still not responsible for your entire value chain, including scopes 1, 2, and 3. Using different levers to drive down greenhouse gas emissions would be best. Leveraging your buying power is essential to transform your entire value chain from your hardware, software, and professional service providers. It starts by asking tough questions, enforcing a stricter vendor code of conduct, and imposing challenging sustainability requirements in bids and master service agreements. Additionally, it requires fostering a collaborative, corrective, and innovative environment with those providers in order to find ideas and solutions with a more positive environmental and social impact.

The chapter includes a case study from Camilla Cederquist, a sustainability specialist at Atea Sverige, board member of Cradlenet, and co-founder of Atea Sustainability Focus (ASF) Leadership for Change, who will share her perspective on how IT buyers need to influence the global IT manufacturing industry to adopt more sustainable practices regarding the climate, circular economy, and human rights.

Chapter 8, Leverage Buying Power, will explore the different levers available to you to transform your vendors into a sustainable ecosystem.

Sustainability by IT

In Chapter 2, Rise of Sustainable IT, we made a distinction between sustainable IT and sustainability by IT. Although this book primarily focuses on sustainable IT and how you can transition to a sustainable IT enterprise, it is also important to understand how sustainability by IT can unlock innovation for sustainable business models. Sustainability by IT is what you develop for internal customer and commercial use for your customers, providing a product or solution that targets a specific sustainability need. Sustainable solutions enabled by IT and technology can be applied to various industries. Here, the possibilities and use cases are endless, and we could easily dedicate a whole book to this topic. However, to at least get a taste of the topic, in Chapter 9, Sustainability by IT, we will be covering a few examples and hear from industry leaders about how they are transitioning from a linear economy to a circular economy.

Summary

In this introductory chapter to Part 2 of this book, we have provided a brief introduction to each chapter. It should give you a feel for what key topics will be covered within each chapter. Either read each chapter in chronological order or jump to the most relevant chapters. We fully recognized that each starting point might be different when we started with this chapter. Therefore, you should also focus on different solutions that will accelerate your journey toward a Sustainable IT practice.

Circling back on the sustainable IT reference model that was introduced earlier in the chapter, Figure 3.3 highlights how the chapters in Parts 2 and 3 are interlinked with the reference model. Hopefully, this should enable you to understand how the different building blocks fit together:

Figure 3.3 – Chapters interlinked with the reference model

Figure 3.3 – Chapters interlinked with the reference model

Now, let us dig deeper into these critical concepts. Each chapter represents different opportunities to unlock the potential for your path toward building a Sustainable IT practice, starting with Chapter 4, Data Center and Cloud.

Bibliography

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