Sustainability has never been higher on management’s agenda, as both consumers and regulators keep a close eye on how companies impact the environment. Failure to recognize this can damage a company both financially and reputationally as individuals no longer want to interact with brands that are failing to become more sustainable. In fact, we go even further: recent research from PWC shows that consumers are willing to pay 9.7% more for sustainably produced or sourced goods, despite persistent inflationary pressures.
Moreover, the regulatory burden, especially when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, will only increase. The Climate Change Act commits Britain to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. However, earlier this year a high court ruled that the UK government’s climate action plan was ‘unlawful’, citing that there is currently insufficient evidence of sufficient policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. gas emissions. A revised plan will be drawn up over the next 12 months to ensure Britain meets its pledge to cut emissions by more than two-thirds by 2030. It is likely that the majority of UK companies are expected to play some role in greenhouse gas emissions. this.
Often, transitioning away from fossil fuels or decarbonizing emissions-intensive industries are seen as key routes to net-zero emissions. Another important area that would have a positive impact on organizational sustainability is efficient data storage. Today, organizations are still plagued by redundant, outdated or trivial (ROT) and obscure data, with little or no effort made to address data storage issues. This offers great opportunities for companies operating in today’s increasingly sustainability-conscious landscape.
Senior Vice President at Veritas Technologies.
What a waste! Data hoarding and sustainability
With the proliferation of digital devices and online applications, individuals are more aware of their data than ever before. While the topic of data breaches and how to prevent them often receives attention, this is not the case with sustainability and the impact that certain data management practices can have on the environment.
Thus, waste remains a major problem in data storage. The energy consumption of purchased storage remains the same regardless of how much of it is used. Making the most of available capacity and purchasing no more than necessary must therefore be a priority if companies want to achieve both efficiency and sustainability.
Data collection is a catalyst for poor decision making. As a company’s pile of data grows, it becomes harder to keep track of it all and it becomes easier for cybercriminals to exploit it. Data breaches have devastating consequences and while we are all aware of the financial and reputational damage that can result, many of us may not be as aware of the environmental costs of data hoarding, with data centers currently pumping out tonnes of emissions to manage them . global data storage, equivalent to almost 2 percent of the world’s emissions, which is the same as the aviation industry.
The message is clear. Companies must take responsibility when it comes to storing data, turning away from poor data management practices and considering solutions to reduce their carbon footprint.
Making a positive impact
As pressure to become more sustainable increases, companies must stay one step ahead. One way to ensure this is by proactively setting up emissions tracking systems and researching how to optimize services that are both environmentally friendly and cost-efficient. It is important to find the balance between ensuring that data is securely protected, but also that all solutions are implemented in a way that limits the long-term environmental impact of data storage and management.
Companies should start by taking stock of their current data management and storage practices and assessing how they align with any broader environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives. This allows areas for improvement to be identified and business leaders to seek advice from internal or external sources.
To minimize waste in data storage, IT leaders can embrace lean principles with techniques such as data compression, deduplication and thin provisioning. It is beneficial for organizations to establish an official data lifecycle to understand the relevance of data, archive rarely used data, and delete data that is no longer needed.
When it comes to adopting more sustainable data management practices, organizations can of course consider partnering with cloud service providers to help efficiently manage their carbon footprint. By dynamically allocating resources to customer workloads, cloud data centers can achieve higher resource utilization and energy efficiency, which translates to a lower carbon footprint associated with the same workload.
A more sustainable future
In the future, business leaders will need to be more aware of the environmental impacts of their activities. Dark data should not be viewed as a natural consequence of digitalization, and data waste and data hoarding are two issues that need to be addressed head-on. By adopting cloud-based autonomous data management solutions that combine automation, artificial intelligence and elastic architecture, organizations can pave the way to a more cost-effective and sustainable business model.
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