Report - CIOs and The Carbon Impact of IT: Issues, Challenges and New Drivers

The IT department is under pressure as ESG (environment, social and governance) and CSR (corporate social responsibility) departments demand increasingly precise data on the environmental impact of its activities, and beyond the digital environments it manages on behalf of business departments.

This demand is reinforced by regulatory compliance obligations such as those linked to the European Sustainable Development Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the REEN Act in France (French law to reduce the environmental footprint of digital technology). In particular, these require organizations to measure their GHG emissions and set reduction or mitigation targets.

Today, it is essential to provide reliable data on the environmental impact of IT. This approach makes it possible to assess in detail the components of the information system that have an impact, and to identify the right levers for reducing them.

Each element of the information system - whether networks, user equipment, cloud solutions, etc. - is responsible for part of the overall environmental footprint. Four elements have significant impacts: data centers, the user environment, cross-functional elements and the network.

With the rise of compute-intensive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto-currencies, impacts are also increasing at an alarming rate.

In this report, discover how the IT department can meet the challenges of IT sustainability reporting with precise carbon measurements for its IT infrastructures and information system. It explores data collection, emission factors, tool selection criteria and offers practical recommendations for a reliable assessment.

Summary:

• CIOs face the challenges of digital responsibility and sustainability reporting.
• What is a reliable carbon measurement for IT?
• Focusing on the finest level of granularity, to ensure accurate and reliable evaluation.
• Data collection and emission factors: the basis for reliable carbon assessment.
• Points of attention with software tools and criteria to consider before purchasing.
• Our recommendations for the IT department.
• Glossary, methodology and about this expert report.

To access the report, click here (French and English versions).