A complex issue at the recent Sensors Converge 2023 was how to limit “greenwashing” in making sustainability claims, so that what a company tells investors and the public about their green efforts, they will have more teeth and believability and less PR-speak.
In similar fashion, engineers and tech executives are struggling with ways to give sustainability and net-zero goals more teeth, or at least pointier teeth, according to a new Intel survey of more than 2,000 CTO’s, CEOs and CSOs in large companies across 22 markets.
Intel found, for example, a huge percentage (76%) of senior IT leaders said it is a significant challenge to deliver greener IT while significantly increasing computing performance. And, what’s worse, 72% of them said there is a knowledge gap in the IT profession when it comes to sustainability and green IT.
The survey also indicated CTOs have the greatest potential to drive sustainability in an organization. Intel took such findings and created its own sustainability action roadmap for CTOs. The company published a 38-page document on the role of the Sustainable CTO as a result.
It includes ideas that run the gamut, from better use of tech recycling to keeping technology in use longer. Or, choosing hardware for a project based on its energy use as a top priority.
In addition, Intel said it has created a new Sustainable CTO Advisory Board with leaders from Cisco, IBM, Shell and others to meet regularly and share best practices.
Brent Collins, senior director of data and emerging solutions for World Wide Technology, a consultancy, offered, “the simplest answers are often the most effective” such as turning off zombie servers that continually consume energy and resources without performing useful tasks.
He also encouraged CTOs and companies to “activate change with a wider ecosystem in mind.” That could include recognizing that setting up training for sustainability is desirable, but “traveling across the globe for that training may not make sense with the carbon impact.”