The green conscience of CIOs

The challenge of achieving Carbon Neutrality in the enterprise is a major one for CIOs.

What are green IT best practices?

Since 1900, the earth's temperature has warmed by around 1.1°C (1.7°C for metropolitan France). To combat this global warming, the objectives of the Paris Agreement (2015) are based on the equation that, by 2050, no individual should emit more greenhouse gases (GHGs) than ecosystems can naturally absorb.

In France, on November 15, 2021, based on the recommendations of the Report of the information mission on the environmental footprint of digital, a law aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of digital (REEN) was enacted. This is a world first, proposing a series of measures to promote sober, responsible and ecologically virtuous digital in France.

According to the think tank Green IT, total emissions from digital activities currently account for 4% of the global carbon footprint, and this figure is rising given our increasingly energy-intensive uses (data-centers, device lifecycles, exponential use of the internet - visios, etc...) and far from environmentally-friendly technological developments (Blockchain, AI, Machine Learning, IoT, cryptocurrencies, etc...). Companies, and more particularly those linked to the digital world, therefore have a major role to play in meeting the Net-Zero carbon imperative.

In addition to the direct pollution linked to the consumption of digital services, there is also indirect pollution linked to the lifecycle of digital activities, notably from the manufacture of hardware (computers, servers, smartphones, network components, etc.). When it's one of a company's suppliers who generates the emissions, they're called indirect, but the company in question has to take them into account and include them in the calculation of its own carbon footprint - and they can make up the majority!

ISD as part of a responsible corporate strategy

Over the past few years, these findings and measures have given rise to a new approach: Green IT. Green IT. As the French and European regulatory frameworks become clearer, more and more companies are integrating Net-Zero carbon objectives into their strategic goals, and responsible digital technology is becoming an essential component of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies.

The challenge of a responsible digital future is now on the strategic agenda of a CIO, alongside the other functions of a company committed to this transformation. Because, beyond the footprint it represents, digital technology is also a formidable lever for reducing the environmental footprint of organizations, and this for a wide range of professions (logistics, manufacturing, R&D...). The challenge of digital carbon neutrality in business is therefore based on a complementary concept, the IT for Green. These are generally solutions based on connected objects and Big Data. It's a question of investing in digital technology and extending its scope of use to help reduce the footprint in other areas of the company (this use of digital technology will also have a carbon footprint, but we'll be checking that the balance is positive).

Patrick Anfossi, CIO of Plastic Omnium, is a lecturer on the Executive Certificate CIO course created by Infortive Transition in partnership with CentraleSupélec Exed. He leads the sessions dedicated to Responsible Digital :

"Over the last ten years or so, awareness of the environmental impact of digital technologies within our companies has been growing. We, the CIOs, have matured, and more and more of us are taking the initiative, defining objectives and providing innovative, sustainable solutions."

Approach #1: Bilan Carbone® (Carbon Balance)

The first step in achieving the objectives of reducing the carbon footprint of an IT department's activities is to carry out a Bilan Carbone®. This assessment enables a prioritized action plan to be set in motion to reduce or even offset emissions (see action points at the end of the article).

Why would you want to carry out this Bilan Carbone®? First and foremost , to meet a legal obligation! Since 2010, Article 75 of French Law N°2010-788 (Grenelle II law) has required public and private organizations to produce and regularly update a carbon footprint. This is compulsory for companies with more than 500 employees, public establishments with more than 250 employees and government departments. But in reality, whatever the scale of the company, measurement is essential and the foundation of the approach.

To construct and then analyze a Bilan Carbone®, the international carbon accounting methodology introduces a categorization of emissions into 3 perimeters, or scope 1, 2 and 3:

• Scope 1 accounts for direct emissions from company activities (production, heating of buildings, emissions from company vehicles, etc.),
• Scope 2 covers indirect emissions linked to the production of energy consumed by the company - in particular electricity,
• Scope 3 covers all other indirect emissions, which generally account for the majority of a company's emissions, such as purchases of goods and services, commuting, customer use of products or services supplied by the company...

The bulk of the carbon footprint will relate to scopes 2 and 3. For an IT department, all the services offered to the company's businesses (public and/or private Cloud services, the Workplace, data centers, hardware purchases, employees, etc.) will need to be identified, classified and measured.

Once the measurement has been carried out, a reasonable but ambitious trajectory can be defined. This trajectory can be built around electricity consumption and purchases of goods and services. The approach must be a long-term one, based on an incremental and iterative process.

By ranking the sources of emissions in descending order and applying the 80/20 law, we can identify priority actions. For example, we often find that a significant proportion of emissions is generated during the manufacture of the equipment used by the company(the manufacture of a computer emits between 600 and 1000 kg of CO2 equivalent, much more than electricity consumption, and not counting its "ecological backpack" - see diagram), and thatextending its lifespan is one of the major ways of reducing emissions.

The corporate context

To implement this approach, it is often useful to follow the organization's overall carbon neutrality roadmap. The CIO's cross-functional role facilitates a holistic approach to this process: business lines are questioned, suppliers and publishers are questioned, and the organization's various assets are assessed... In addition, to make the responsible approach a reality, the CIO may need to carry out targeted communication and awareness-raising actions to accelerate this Interim within the organization. Awareness-raising and training represent real educational challenges, both internally (recycling or life-cycle extension, best practice guides, etc.) and externally (experience sharing, monitoring, and, of course, brand image, etc.).

So, as in many other areas today, the CIO is a true partner to the company's business units.

In Plastic Omnium's case, the company is committed to achieving carbon neutrality on scope 1 and scope 2 by 2025, and to reducing scope 3 by 30% by 2030. The IT Department is part of this corporate initiative and contributes to these objectives.

The cost of doing nothing

As each company is unique, this approach must fit pragmatically into its overall strategy.

Depending on the company's sector of activity, the carbon footprint of digital activities can vary considerably. However, we can see that more and more companies are now concerned about their carbon footprint, and that their customers will become increasingly demanding about the emissions of products sold (which fall within their scope 3), and in particular about the digital portion of these emissions.

After a few years in its infancy, when green IT was more a case of greenwashing, the realization is there: since 2018, the Green IT Manager job has officially entered the Cigref nomenclature of 50 information systems jobs.

The role of the CIO is enriched. It's not just a question of reducing the environmental impact of digital technology, it's also a question of using it wisely. It's a question of resilience for humanity! Even if the Interim entails costs for the sectors that emit the most, in terms of training teams and financing the necessary investments in technology and infrastructure, the cost of "doing nothing" will be much higher!

Responsible digital best practices

To get you started, here are a few areas for thought and action that you, as a CIO, can take to make an impact . It's up to you to complete the list:

• Working on initiatives toextend the lifecycle of IT equipment
• Adjust purchasing policy to incorporate environmental criteria
• Communicate regularly on best practices, and use the resources made available to your employees to raise awareness of this culture of sustainable digital development.
• Mobilize and integrate your suppliers into this global approach
• Set up a sustainable digital manager within the IT department, allocating a specific budget and performance indicators.

Further information

• Greenit.fr's "Global Digital Footprint
• La Fresque du Numérique (The Digital Fresco): A fun workshop for teams to understand the environmental challenges of digital technology.
• Article Futura Sciences: Global warming: the digital sector generates more greenhouse gases than aviation
• Information report on the environmental footprint of digital technology
• Les Echos article: "Responsible technology", an approach still little used in French companies
• Le Monde article: For a sustainable, responsible and trusted digital future