IT Sustainability Think Tank: How CIOs can measure their carbon emissions and energy use

What to determine

A carbon footprint is the measurement of your organization’s overall emissions from all sources, which are sub-divided into 3 worldwide acknowledged classifications, called scopes:

• Scope 1: Direct emissions from operations that are owned or managed by your business, such as fuel combustion from centers and cars that your business owns or controls.This consists of emissions from the combustion of nonrenewable fuel sources, on-site fuel combustion, and procedure emissions. Computing Scope 1 emissions offers insights into the instant effect of an organisation’s activities on GHG emissions.

• Scope 2: Indirect emissions from the generation of acquired or obtained electrical power, steam, heating or cooling taken in. Determining Scope 2 emissions assists CIOs comprehend the ecological effect of their energy usage and notifies choices on sourcing sustainable or low-carbon energy options.
• Scope 3: All indirect emissions (not consisted of in Scope 2) that happen in the worth chain, consisting of both upstream and downstream emissions. Examples consist of bought raw products, staff member travelling and company travel. Scope 3 is the biggest factor towards a business’s overall GHG emissions. Determining Scope 3 emissions supplies a holistic view of the ICT carbon footprint, consisting of emissions connected with providers, clients, and item lifecycle. It makes it possible for groups to recognize chances for emissions decreases beyond their instant operations.

You can utilize the following actions to compute your organization’s ICT footprint. While these need not remain in the order revealed listed below, lots of feed into each other:

• Understand and collect readily available information and determine spaces
• Specify crucial efficiency signs (KPIs) and lining up these to the business net-zero vision and method
• Specify KPI estimations
• Collect requirements for reporting system
• Construct reporting system and compute footprint
• Engage and train stakeholders on outputs
• Analyse information and drive action

Reporting

Numerous big organisations currently report their carbon footprints according to worldwide requirements and requirements, such as the Science Based Target Initiative. Organisations have various methods of reporting their GHG emissions depending on their function (i.e. what’s in scope for reporting) and the function of the reports. Emissions can be reported at 3 levels, in accordance with Scopes 1, 2 and 3.

The direct ecological effects of an ICT estate can stem from the following elements for instance:

• Laptop computers, PCs, cellphones and tables
• Networks, such as LAN, WLAN
• Phones and telecoms facilities, such as switchboards
• Printers and paper utilized
• Datacentres
• Information, storage, CPU, and disk
• Servers
• Other gadgets, such as TVs, projectors, enhanced truth or virtual truth headsets
• E-waste
• ICT-related travel, from workers in the ICT function, or engineers supplying assistance (optional depending upon the size of the effect and how organisations report on travel and other elements of their carbon footprint).

Carbon emissions from energy usage are the biggest ecological effect of utilizing ICT gadgets. Preferably, your energy footprint need to report the usage of main energy sources and cover the total supply chain of products and services.

Numerous tools can assist to measure and decrease the emissions of your ICT estate. CGI’s digital twin platform streams real-time information, and steps and forecasts energy usage. Offerings like this can supply carbon accounting insights to its users, allowing CIOs and IT directors to comprehend and decrease the carbon footprint of their hosting platform.

Embodied carbon emissions describe the greenhouse gas emissions produced throughout the production and transport of items, from the extraction of basic materials to the production procedure and last shipment to the customer. CIOs require to consider who they do service with, and whether these providers utilize sustainable energy and other sustainability requirements (e.g. electrical lorries) throughout the production and transport of items.

In summary, understanding and handling GHG emissions is essential for organisations and leaders dedicated to sustainable practices. A reliable method to minimize emissions is by means of using tools that can report, keep an eye on and anticipate energy usage of gadgets. By determining and understanding emissions, CIOs and IT directors can drive significant modification, set decrease targets, and make notified choices to enhance their ecological effect.

This will allow them to improve sustainability efficiency, abide by policies, and develop a credibility as accountable business people.