Intro
With Andy Ruben coming to talk last week about his re-commerce platform Trove, one idea that stuck with me from his talk was sustainability in Tech. Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important factor to enterprise success but also the Earth as a whole. Andy mentioned a few ideas for us as young professionals to think about sustainability and our impact, but this blog post will be about how and why tech companies should make sustainability an important goal for their businesses.
Factors
There are two main factors to think about when sustainability comes to mind for businesses. What products are being bought and how are those products being run? As for the products a company should look for energy-efficient products and ones that have low embodied carbon. (Embodied Carbon is all the carbon used to make that product) Many companies today are focusing on creating low-carbon products using recycled materials in order to make it easier to buy more environmentally friendly products. As for how those products are being run, companies want to make sure to reduce the energy used in running their products. An example of this is to put data centers in areas with lots of access to clean energy. Focusing on where your data centers will be getting their energy business can reduce their own impact on energy consumption.
Waste
Waste is also a large factor in tech. Technology can come and go very quickly and as a result, waste can be a real issue. There are many ways to account for this. One way is to design tech that can replace a singular part rather than being forced to replace the whole thing. Circularity is the idea that something can go back into the next product instead of being wasted. These ideas help largely with waste and should be implemented by tech companies.
Tracking
Luckily as sustainability has become a more important idea for businesses, new technologies have arisen in order to make tracking and reaching goals more feasible. Data is important for tracking metrics and reaching goals that have been set for a business. Now there are things like satellites and sensors that can track certain sustainability metrics. This can be used for regulatory reporting but also for setting sustainability goals.
Example
An example of a company that is focusing on responsible sustainability practices is Elektros. Elektros is an electric car company that manufactures electric cars and parts. Elektros has recently announced they are launching Elektros Energy, a clean energy brand. This brand will focus on lithium mining, EV Charging, and innovative solutions for the world’s energy future. Lithium is used in the manufacturing of electric cars, however, is often acquired in ways that harm the environment. Elektros Energy will focus on sourcing its lithium in environmentally friendly ways. The company has also patented new ways of charging that will make electric cars more accessible and adopted across the world. This is a company that has taken sustainability as a main priority and we can see that in how they have cleaned up their supply chain as well as developed new technologies that will benefit the electric car industry as a whole.
Conclusion
In conclusion, sustainability should be at the forefront of every major company. With regulations and new issues, this should only increase globally. We saw with Trove how Tech companies can still operate in efficient ways while also focusing on sustainable practices. As we enter the working world we should focus our efforts on finding companies that have sustainability as a primary goal.
Hey Nick, I like your focus on sustainability. I feel like this is often overlooked in the technological scope, both by means of physical and intangible waste. Intangible waste spawned by digital usage actually has major implications on the environment, which is something I’d love to discuss in class!
I really enjoyed Andy’s talk as well. I really like his angle that it’s a much more effective tactic to become engaged with sustainability at the enterprise level than to engage in personal sustainability efforts. I do think the right people in the right places of business can have a huge impact, but the impact of individual action is limited.
Hi Nick! Great post. I honestly feel like sustainability is not talked about much when it comes to big corporations. And when it is talked about, it feels like an “I have to talk about this” thing, not an “I want to talk about this”. I loved how Andy was passionate about sustainability and made it his line of work.
With that being said, I really, really, hope that all companies start taking initiatives to help sustainability. Like you said, running on clean energy is for sure a start. The idea of synergy comes to my head while reading all of this, it would be really cool if companies could combine with other companies or coordinate their resources to produce less waste. This would help the companies and the earth!
Hey Nick! I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I believe that a company that is focused on sustainability will ending up receiving more business in 2023 than a company that is not so heavily focused on sustainability. This comes down to the consumers, if the consumers are able to receive a product for the same cost at both companies, but one company is more environmentally friendly, the consumer will tend to choose that company. I think it is important for us to shed light on sustainability, like you did in your post. Thank you for sharing!
Great post! Sustainability is a major issue for large corporations, university campuses, public buildings, and many more. One of the main hurdles for companies to become more sustainable is price. Interested to see how companies adapt to this new standard over the next few years!