9 Tips For An Eco-Friendly Digital Transformation Strategy

Digital transformation is no longer a buzzword in the business landscape, it’s a strategic imperative. To optimize productivity, efficiency, and performance in the modern world, companies need access to the latest tools and technologies. This is increasingly true as competition continues to grow, and customer expectations evolve.

Digital transformation also has the potential to positively impact the world as we know it, with the WEF (World Economic Forum) predicting $100 trillion will be added to the world economy through digital transformation projects. What’s more, digital transformation can even help organizations achieve other essential goals, such as implementing more sustainable processes.

However, if, like many companies today. you’re focusing on reducing your environmental footprint, it’s important to approach your digital transformation strategy the right way.

While digital innovations like cloud technologies and energy efficient hardware can minimize your carbon emissions, digital technology overall still accounts for between 1.4 and 4.9% of global emissions. So, how do you ensure your digital transformation efforts have a positive impact on your business and the environment? Here are our top tips.

1. Set Clear Sustainability Goals

Setting clear goals is often the first step in any successful digital transformation project. It ensure you know exactly what you want to accomplish with your investments, and what metrics you need to monitor. If you want to improve your environmental footprint, establishing what you want to achieve with “green targets” is a good first step.

Not only will having pre-set goals give you a specific outcome to work towards, improving your chances of investing in the right technology and tools, but it can improve your brand reputation. Sharing your sustainability goals on your website and social media pages attracts the attention of customers looking to work with more eco-conscious brands. Remember, around 73% of millennials are willing to spend more money on eco-friendly solutions.

A good way to begin choosing your goals, is to assess your current sustainability standing. There are various tools and calculators available online, such as the UN Carbon Footprint calculator, that can help you evaluate how sustainable your practices currently are.

2. Gain Business-Wide Buy-In for ESG

To ensure sustainability is a core consideration throughout your digital transformation process, you need to ensure every business stakeholder is invested. It’s not enough for just business technology leaders like the CTO and CIO to understand the impact of sustainability.

Every business leader needs to work together to ensure the right strategies are implemented to reduce carbon emissions and environmental impact. Ultimately, the best way to gain buy-in is to help every stakeholder understand the business benefits of sustainability.

Highlight how a sustainable approach to digital transformation will not only reduce your impact on the environment, but also:

Improve your brand reputation and give you a competitive advantage
Increase appeal to investors (85% of investors considered ESG in 2020)
Enhance talent acquisition and retention in a skill-short market
Improve productivity and performance among teams
Reduce operational costs and expenses
Increase profits and opportunities
Ensure compliance with regulations and global guidelines

3. Digitize Wasteful Practices

As mentioned above, investing in certain types of digital transformation strategy can have a direct impact on your environmental footprint, almost straight away. For instance, if you can digitize processes like document management, you can reduce the amount of paper your company consumes on a regular basis. Many companies have already made the transition to “paperless office environments”.

In these landscapes, tasks that would usually require paper are managed online and through the cloud. For instance, employees can work on documents and whiteboards together in real-time using tools like Microsoft Teams and Google Workspace. Documents can be stored in cloud environments to reduce the need for physical real-estate.

You can also eliminate the time-consuming process of creating and sending physical invoices and receipts to your customers, by communicating with them through messenger apps and email.

4. Adjust Your Energy Saving Initiatives

Sometimes, a successful digital transformation strategy starts with assessing your current landscape, and looking for opportunities to improve. If you want to create a more sustainable IT footprint, a good place to start your assessment, is with your energy usage.

Look at your current energy usage, and how much you’re currently spending to operate machinery, real-estate, and devices in your organization. If your energy supplier offers access to tools like smart meters, you can get a good overview of how much you’re spending on energy each day.

If your energy usage is high, you can look for ways to reduce it, such as implementing eco-friendly lighting and heating, and switching to low-power devices where possible. You can even consider using laptops instead of desktop computers, which reduce use of mains electricity.

If you can’t find a way to effectively cut down on the amount of energy you already use, by switching to more efficient technology, then consider switching your supplier. Many energy companies now offer access to sustainable energy packages, with specific options for business leaders. Choosing a company that offers sustainable energy production can reduce your footprint significantly.

5. Remember the “Three R’s”

Part of building a more sustainable company in today’s world, is embracing the concept of “the three R’s”: Reduce, reuse, and recycle. When you’re investing in a digital transformation project, it can be tempting to focus on simply throwing away old technology and embracing new devices.

However, many of the resources you already have in your business could be potentially upgraded and reused, or recycled, to save you money, and protect the environment. Studies show that around 34% of electronic waste is produced from IT resources. If you want to cut down your footprint, assess your current resources, and ask what you can do to “upgrade” them for new needs.

Replacing components of data centers and computers is often less expensive and wasteful than starting with a brand-new system. There are even solutions out there that can help you to update the operating systems of old devices. For instance, Chrome OS Flex from Google is a valuable way to modernize the devices you would otherwise need to throw away.

6. Embrace the Cloud

Moving your processes and systems to the cloud doesn’t automatically eliminate your carbon footprint. The cloud relies on access to a wide network of data centers, and all of these data centers require energy to run. However, shifting to the cloud can still minimize your carbon footprint, and help you to digitally transform, if you approach the process correctly.

Moving to the cloud during your digital transformation strategy can help you to minimize the number of physical products you need to use each day, such as paper and whiteboards. It also means you can potentially reduce your use of office space and energy, by offering access to remote and hybrid working policies.

When employees can work from home, you can reduce the size of your office or business environment, meaning fewer overhead costs (and less energy expenditure). Remote work also means fewer cars on the road, minimizing carbon emissions.

Of course, the key to success is choosing the right cloud strategy. It’s not enough to simply upload your processes to any cloud environment. You need to ensure you’re making the most of the data centers available to you, and working with sustainable vendors.

7. Choose Green Suppliers and Partners

A big part of any digital transformation strategy is choosing the right suppliers and partners to work with. Whether you’re investing in new hardware, software, or solutions, there are ways you can ensure you’re working with more eco-conscious companies.

For instance, if you’re choosing a new cloud-based service such as “Unified Communications as a Service” or “Contact Center as a Service” platforms, you can assess the sustainability initiatives of the vendors you’re considering. The best companies will demonstrate their commitment to reducing carbon emissions, and even provide insights into how their data centers are powered.

When you’re shopping for hardware, it’s relatively easy to track down eco-conscious vendors. Simply look for companies that offer technology made with recycled materials, or innovative power systems. There are even some companies in the technology landscape that have programs in place that allow you to trade in older technology to cut the cost of purchasing new solutions.

8. Experiment with Innovative Solutions

Digital transformation isn’t just a way for companies to ensure they can keep up with the competition and impress their customers. It can also be a fantastic opportunity to innovate. For instance, if you’re serving a remote workforce, you can consider looking into “DaaS” (Desktop as a Service) solutions, to allow employees to continue using their own devices to access your technologies.

If you need to manage servers, one way to integrate sustainability into your processes is through server virtualization. This allows multiple virtual machines to operate through a single server, reducing space requirements, energy consumption, and heat generation.

Another option is to utilize artificial intelligence, automation, and the Internet of Things to optimize energy use. AI solutions can improve data center efficiency through load balancing and cooling optimization. IoT can help you manage lighting and HVAC systems based on occupancy and other conditions. Not only does all of this reduce energy use, but it also minimizes your business operational costs, and long-term spending.

9. Implement Sustainable Policies

Finally, one of the best ways to make sure that your digital transformation efforts have a positive impact on the environment, is to guide your employees through sustainable training and policies. Teach your team members how to make the most of sustainability trends like cloud computing, by ensuring they know when to work from home to reduce their emissions.

Assess your office buildings, and how employees use the resources available to them. For instance, if you’re running a hybrid workforce, using booking systems can ensure you can reduce the number of computers and other systems running at the same time, by minimizing the people in the office.

Even implementing simple policies, like asking team members to shut down their computer systems before they leave the office building, can have a positive impact. This reduces the amount of energy your business consumes, and it can also prevent crucial equipment from deteriorating too quickly.

Make Your Digital Transformation Strategy Sustainable

Investing in a successful digital transformation strategy doesn’t just mean purchasing new products and tools to make your business more productive. It can also be an excellent way to make your organization more efficient, sustainable, and eco-friendly.

As demand for sustainability continues to rise, every company will continue to face increasing pressure from stakeholders, investors, customers, and governments to reduce their carbon footprint. By embedding sustainability into your digital transformation efforts, you improve your chances of effectively “future proofing” your business.