How sustainability is key to unlocking longevity in business

COP26 in Glasgow starts on the 31st of October 2021 where world leaders will come together to share ideas and strategies to combat the climate emergency. Currently trending on social channels as nations receive increased calls to set more ambitious targets in reducing emissions. Consumers are looking to businesses where they spend their money to demonstrate the positive steps their organisations are taking. In a survey of 1,004 respondents in the USA and UK in November 2018 for Futerra by OnePulse, respondents told them that 88% of consumers would like brands to do more to help them live an environmentally friendly life.

Read on to find the ways in which technology is evolving to reduce carbon emissions and the importance of making sustainability a priority as part of your business planning.

For many SMEs, the focus is on their business survival having experienced many challenges during 2020 and 2021. Sustainability is something many business leaders want to incorporate into their strategy but time is fleeting and it can seem expensive and difficult to navigate. We have seen the government discuss green deals and grants for businesses, but what does it all mean? Despite the long list of benefits for businesses in adopting practices that reduce their carbon footprint

“customer demand for improved transparency and sustainable practices is the key trigger for change, cited by 52% of participants. In total, 48% of respondents said the opportunity for future revenue and growth was the main motivational factor.”

(Futera, Nov 2018)

It is critical for an organisation to remember that any waste is a mishandling of a company’s resources. To ensure your business has the tools to navigate the next few years, sustainability must be at the top of your agenda. Prolonging the lifespan of your resources - technology, systems and processes should be a key factor when purchasing. 

What do businesses need to do?

Businesses should look at how they can drive efficiency. By focusing on cloud-based software and the way in which data can be used meaningfully, it’s possible to track a businesses’ carbon output. Improvements can only be made once awareness has taken place. Utilising cloud services within your organisation reduces emissions by having centralised data centres that are closer to your offices to speed up the distribution of data. Using big data and tools such as Power BI can track a business’ carbon usage, this can also create effective reports to communicate with your departments on their expenditure and put in place changes. 

Internet of Things (IoT) has begun touching all parts of technology, we have seen it emerge in our offices, home and our communities. A key success of IoT is the ability to monitor all device usage. In terms of sustainability, it can help cut down on energy waste. Using geo-location or timers, it may be beneficial to switch off lists or plugs for when they’re not in use. How can this be used effectively in your offices?

Using a system such as Microsoft Azure that can be changed on a monthly basis, allows a business to increase it at certain times of year that are busier, such as the Christmas period can be beneficial financially but also in reducing their emissions. Interflora, the online florist has adopted this model for periods such as Valentines Day, Mothers Day & Easter. They benefit from the additional data needed over this time and are able to reduce costs across other times of the year 

What are businesses doing?

Microsoft has committed to net-zero by 2030, with an additional goal of removing all carbon emitted since it was founded in 1975. As a leading software provider, their reduction of carbon emissions has a huge impact. Their cloud computing has empowered energy efficiency as well as material waste reduction. As mentioned above, their increase in cloud services has reduced the need for intensive servers and increased the availability of open-source software minimizing the need for ventilation, cooling processes and air conditioning. They have also added power management to their products, enabling smart energy consumption on monitors and hard drives. 

Dell has committed to net-zero by 2050 and are looking into ways to balance carbon emissions with carbon offsetting activities. It has set itself milestones along the way to 2050 such as reduce scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 2030. They’re also committed to purchasing 75% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030, 100% by 2040.

It’s important for Zenzero to partner with businesses committed to improving the sustainability in tech. When tech leaders and managed service providers are focused on the same goal, we can continue to create better technological solutions while reducing our carbon emissions.

What are Zenzero doing?

Our sustainability pledge

At Zenzero, sustainability is important to us in all that we do. We know that businesses want to align themselves with others who are working towards the same goals in fighting the climate crisis.  

As a result, this year we have taken an ambitious pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2027. We have signed up to Tech Zero alongside other global tech organisations to be held accountable for this mission and support each other in improving our business practices.  

As part of this pledge, we also commit to publishing annual reports on our emissions data, including measuring scope 1-3.  

What is Tech Zero? 

Tech Zero is a climate action group for tech companies of all sizes that are committed to fighting the climate crisis. Through working together, all tech businesses can make faster progress to net zero. Zenzero joins businesses such as Bloom and Wild, Starling Bank, Citymapper, Confused.com and more.

What else are we doing? 

We have improved our people’s benefits and ensured that they are environmentally friendly. Zenzero has introduced an electric car salary sacrifice scheme and cycle-to-work schemes (Bike2Work) to promote lower emission travel to the office.  

As we plan to move offices in 2022, we are looking for facilities where we can better utilise environmentally friendly measures such as buying energy from 100% renewable sources and installing LED lighting with motion sensors. 

As a business, we are also trialing the capabilities of Microsoft Cloud in helping us track our emissions as well as assisting us to provide actionable insights into how we can reduce our carbon footprint. Furthermore,  we are also looking to create a new service for our customers who want support in minimising their own emissions by harnessing the  Microsoft Cloud.  

Lastly, our team will be taking part in a volunteering exercise to plant more trees in November 2022 to help us offset our emissions. 

If you would like to know more or discuss how Zenzero is managing sustainability in more detail,

please call us on 0333 3209 900 or email us at hello@zenzero.co.uk