How sustainable technology can help you achieve your business and environmental goals

As a chief information officer, chief technology officer, or chief digital officer, you’re often tasked with the difficult balance of driving digital transformation while considering its environmental impact. You need to deliver value to your stakeholders, optimize IT costs, and reduce your carbon footprint – without compromising on quality, performance, or innovation. 

The solution lies in sustainable technology. Sustainable technology minimizes financial, environmental, and social impact by reducing resource consumption. It is integrated into every department, IT domain, and phase of the IT development lifecycle. It promotes transparency through clear metrics supported by tools and processes and upholds sustainability commitments through continuous operational improvements and innovation. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore how Capgemini’s Sustainable Technology framework can future-proof your business. We’ll show you how our framework can help you: 

• Assess your current IT maturity and environmental footprint 
• Implement sustainable practices across all technology domains and lifecycle stages 
• Monitor and manage your IT performance and impact 
• Innovate with new technologies that support your sustainability goals. 

We’ll also share success stories and guide you on starting your sustainable tech journey with us. 

To support our customers, Capgemini has developed a comprehensive Sustainable Technology framework, organized into three key categories:

1. Global IT: Establishes the foundation with a focus on strategy definition, governance, and people management. 
2. Operational IT: Applies responsible practices throughout the technology domain and its lifecycle. 
3. Transversal IT: Provides insights through reporting, enhances processes, and fosters a responsible supplier ecosystem. 

Our framework addresses the full technology lifecycle – from innovation and strategy to eco-design, operation, upgrade, and decommissioning. It can be implemented in its entirety, covering all three categories and their subcategories, or tailored to meet specific needs by focusing on individual categories or subcategories. 

Assess your current IT maturity and environmental footprint 

The first step toward sustainable technology is understanding your current state and future goals. This involves having a clear vision of your IT strategy, governance, and engagement, as well as measuring and reporting your IT emissions to identify key areas for optimization. 

The Global IT Category offers a set of services establishing the foundation for resilient and sustainable digital services, including: 

1. Footprint: A tool used to assess and report the environmental impacts of your information system based on lifecycle assessment methodology and standards. 
2. MaturIT: An interview grid used to evaluate your maturity level in sustainable tech, benchmark your position, and identify strengths and weaknesses. 
3. Roadmap: A detailed action plan to implement your sustainable tech strategy with prioritized levers and KPIs. 
4. Governance: Recommendations and best practices to establish a governance model, roles, and responsibilities supporting your sustainable tech roadmap. 
5. Engagement: A comprehensive training and awareness program to onboard your team in the sustainable tech journey, including RESET, a unique eco-design tool. 

Implement sustainable practices across all technology domains and lifecycle stages 

Transforming your technology lifecycle to include sustainability practices across all domains is the next step. This involves applying eco-design principles, optimizing resource consumption, and innovating with technologies that support your sustainability goals. 

The Operational IT category within the framework, can help with this transformation. It covers the full technology stack—applications, data, cybersecurity, and infrastructure – through a four-step lifecycle approach: 

• Strategy: Benchmarks and positioning for defining your specific roadmap with associated governance and KPIs. 
• Eco-design: Implements sustainable frameworks and levers to manage cost and reduce environmental footprint. 
• Operate: Transforms delivery models to include sustainable practices, report on performance, and take improvement measures as needed. 
• Innovate: Brings new ideas based on trends, partner ecosystems, benchmarks, and R&D activities. Supports innovation teams to implement POCs/POVs.

Monitor and manage your IT performance and impact 

The final step is to monitor and manage your IT performance and impact consistently. This includes measuring, reporting, and improving your IT emissions and costs, and ensuring your IT supplier ecosystem aligns with your sustainability goals. 

The Transversal IT category supports this step, developing processes and deliverables that have a global or operational impact, including: 

• IT environmental accounting: Design and implement solutions to report and analyze the environmental footprint of IT services and activities. 
• IT procurement: Refine Scope 3 emissions related to IT procurement and engage providers in your sustainable tech journey. 
• IT methodology and architecture: Design and implement an eco-design framework, providing qualitative and quantitative repositories for your team. 

Sustainable tech in action 

Here are some examples demonstrating the value of our Sustainable Technology framework: 

• Global retailer: Reduced carbon emissions by 40% by migrating to the cloud and optimizing IT infrastructure, saving $80 million in operational costs. 
• Leading automotive manufacturer: Improved fuel efficiency by 15% using AI to optimize engine design and production processes, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. 
• Major utility company: Increased renewable energy production by 25% using data analytics and IoT to monitor and manage wind and solar farms, reducing maintenance costs and risks. 
• Large insurance company: Improved customer retention by 30% using cloud-native applications and microservices to offer personalized and green products and services, increasing agility and innovation. 

Conclusion 

Sustainable technology is essential, not just for the planet but also as a competitive advantage for your business. It can help reduce IT costs and emissions, improve brand image and customer satisfaction, and drive innovation and growth. 

Capgemini’s Sustainable Technology framework is a comprehensive and modular solution covering all stages and domains of the technology lifecycle. Powered by our leading capabilities in AI, cloud, and data and backed by our strong sustainability commitment, it offers the expertise and support needed for your sustainable tech journey. 

Interested in starting your sustainable tech journey with us? Contact us for a rapid assessment of your IT maturity and environmental footprint. Together, we can create the future you want. 

Also, join us for Capgemini’s “Business to Planet Connect” event during Climate Week 2024 at the Glasshouse in New York City on September 25. Engage with sustainability visionaries through keynote presentations, panel discussions, and Q&As, and network with like-minded professionals and Capgemini experts.