Table of Contents

Preface

Part 1: Why Is Sustainable IT Important?

1

Our Most Significant Challenge Ahead

Climate change – our most significant challenge ahead

What are GHG emissions?

How did we get here?

Bending the curve

History of sustainability

Sustainability trends

The Paris Agreement

EU Taxonomy

Sustainable finance

GHG Protocol Corporate Standard

Science-based targets

Innovate or die

Transitioning to a circular economy

The well-kept secret of the IT industry

Summary

Further resources

Bibliography

2

Rise of Sustainable IT

What is sustainable IT?

Sustainability in IT, sustainability by IT, and IT for society

Sustainable IT GHG emission taxonomy

Corporate sustainability and sustainable IT

Drivers for a sustainable IT agenda

ESG considerations for IT

Financial value

Non-financial value

Risks

Employee engagement

Readiness

Summary

Bibliography

Part 2: What Are Sustainable IT Practices?

3

The Fundamental Building Blocks of a Sustainable IT Practice

The unprecedented growth of IT

Sustainable IT reference model

Data centers and the cloud

Applications and data

IT hardware management

Energy resource management

Leveraging buying power

Sustainability by IT

Summary

Bibliography

4

Data Center and Cloud

The information backbone of our connected world

The sustainability benefits of moving from on-premises to cloud computing

Definition of the cloud

The value of the cloud

Sustainable IT benefits from cloud computing

Location

Energy consumption

Life cycle assessment

Data center sustainability score card

The rise of the net-positive cloud

Choosing a sustainable cloud service provider

Microsoft Azure

Google Cloud

Amazon Web Services

Alibaba Cloud

Oracle

Tencent Cloud

IBM

Cloud vendor report cards

The power of alliances

Summary

Further reading

Bibliography

5

Application and Data

The world runs on software

Transforming Enterprise Architecture to help achieve sustainability targets

Turning a sustainability strategy into action with Enterprise Architecture

Transforming business architecture with the UN’s SDGs

Optimizing application and data architectures in the cloud using best practice frameworks

A pragmatic Enterprise Architecture framework for sustainability tracking

Application portfolio management

Application rationalization process

Application assessment criteria

TIME analysis

Sustainable software development

Choosing energy-efficient programming languages

Sustainable SDLC

Measuring your CO2 spend in the cloud

Summary

Further reading

Bibliography

6

IT Hardware Management

Understanding the impact of IT hardware equipment

Product design and manufacturing

Product lifetime expansion

Energy consumption

Finite resources and hazardous substances

End-of-life management

Circular IT hardware management

Social responsibility – a key unlocking circular transition

Making a business case for change

ITAD – the rise of a new circular industry

Services

Global footprint and service availability

Process

Data sanitization

Why and how does ITAD fit with the Electrolux sustainability strategy?

Choosing a sustainable IT hardware provider

Lenovo

HP

Dell

Apple

Acer

Asus

IT hardware vendor report cards

IT hardware sustainability scorecard

Summary

Further reading

Bibliography

7

Energy Resource Management

Transitioning to a low-carbon future

The energy mix

Energy and foreign policy

The importance of energy security in ICT

Energy consumption from IT hardware

The calculation for the energy consumption and carbon emission of a notebook

The calculation for the energy consumption and carbon emission of a desktop

The calculation for the energy consumption and carbon emission of a server

Summary of energy consumption and carbon emission of ICT devices

Understanding your energy consumption patterns

Step-change to energy resource efficiency

Buy resource-efficient hardware

Leverage low-carbon source

Take advantage of system power management settings

Going virtual

Exploring smart technologies

Summary

Further reading

Bibliography

8

Leveraging Your Buying Power

Drivers for sustainable IT vendor and procurement management

Essential IT sustainability requirements

Corporate commitments

Environmental

Social

Product and service

Circularity

Create a market for sustainable IT

Address the hotspots

The process

The ABC for sustainable IT procurement

Sustainable IT vendor management

Step 1 – establishing and maintaining the program

Step 2 – onboarding and divesting vendors

Step 3 – sustainable IT value realization

Step 4 – vendor life cycle management

Vendor management sustainability scorecard

Summary

Further reading

Bibliography

9

Sustainability by IT

Unlocking a more sustainable future

Carbon emission reporting

ESG risk management

Sustainable sourcing and manufacturing

Environmentally friendly transportation

Energy-efficient buildings

Energy resource management

Hybrid work

Eco-friendly travel

Leveraging and promoting e-services

Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)

From ownership to usership

Embracing the subscription economy

Taking the plunge with a first initiative – Kids Btwin bike subscriptions

Understanding the evolution of subscription business models – shifting from products to subscriber-centric services

Let’s be concrete – how to get started

Moving forward – outcomes and what is next

Scaling with the associated digital landscape – driving positive IT environmental economics

The need to increase the pace of innovation

What is a hackathon?

Citizen-driven innovation

Summary

Further reading

Bibliography

Part 3: How Do You Accelerate Sustainable IT?

10

Get Started Today

The sustainable IT maturity model©

The five dimensions of the sustainable IT maturity model©

The five maturity levels of the sustainable IT maturity model©

Sustainable IT maturity model assessment

Understand impact areas

Data center and cloud

IT hardware

Energy management

IT asset disposition

Network traffic

Establishing your sustainable IT emission baseline

Introduction

Parameters and assumptions

Setting up the emissions table

IT asset registry

Emission baseline single year

Simulating your target state

Multi-year simulation

Summary

Bibliography

11

Putting a Sustainable IT Strategy in Place

Introduction to the sustainable IT strategic planning process

Sustainable IT strategy (input)

Sustainable IT strategic planning process

Sustainable IT strategy (output)

IT and sustainability – part of the problem? Part of the solution!

Creating your own sustainable IT strategy

Materiality assessment

Enterprise sustainability goals and priorities

Enterprise sustainability strategy

Sustainable IT strategy

Setting your direction of travel toward a sustainable future

Summary

Bibliography

12

From Strategy to Execution – Lead with Purpose and Deliver Progress Quickly

Courageous sustainable leadership

Environmental sustainability

Uniting technology and sustainability

Sustainability at scale – translating strategy into action

Delivering on the sustainability agenda through sustainable technology

The 5Cs to secure successful digital transformation

Bringing everything together

Summary

Bibliography

Index

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