Saving your company energy, time and money
As a sustainability manager, you are aware that the energy consumption related to ICT is increasing substantially. And the outlook is that until 2030 the demand for ICT-capacity will escalate dramatically. So it is essential that sustainability managers familiarize themselves with ways to transform the ICT-process enterprises into ‘greener’ and/or more energy-efficient practices. Should sustainability not yet be recognised as a key issue within your company, it might help to focus on the financial benefits. That will probably help you to raise attention for greener practices. Naturally, every company wants to save money!
If you are not completely aware of the connection between sustainability and ICT yet, read further! Organisations can take measures to optimize the ICT-processes within the company, making them more sustainable (i.e. more energy-efficient). Furthermore, ICT can also be used to make the processes within the company more sustainable including the related ways of working and behaviour of employees, customers and suppliers. We will address that later in this blog.
To further quantify: recent surveys have shown that extra focus on ICT & Energy can result in major energy savings; within the ICT-sector as well as in other industries (survey: Greening by ICT) . This survey indicates that the Dutch ICT industry can become € 117 million more efficient. If ICT-processes are improved in other industries, the Netherlands could realize an energy saving of up to € 2 billion.
Making business processes more sustainable
An example of a sustainable business process is encouraging employees to work from home. For most companies, it is a very attractive argument that they can save significantly on square meters of office space and mobility by offering employees the tools to work from home. Working from home also alleviates traffic issues.
More examples of sustainable business processes are:
- paperless meetings, for example by using iBabs
- e-invoices
- e-documents
- remote access to files and applications
- conference calls/video conferencing
