In the business community, we are seeing a sustainability revolution. CEOs and Senior Leadership Teams are recognising that they can no longer take a back seat. They need to be showing their customers, employees, and stakeholders that they are taking affirmative steps and actions to meet compliance and environment regulations.

Yet, many businesses do not realise the important role technology can play in realising sustainability agendas. Technology advancements in recent years, has enabled companies to improve their efficiency and adjust their ways of working.

Interested in how? We’ve outlined how technology can help your organisation transform its sustainability agenda.

Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT has already been adopted by numerous businesses across varying industries, including manufacturing, social housing, and retail. IoT refers to any connected device, such as a tablet and mobile or smart appliances, which exchanges information and data over the internet. Businesses can utilise IoT to track energy and product lifecycles as well customer and employee patterns, enabling them to make better sustainable decisions. Smart devices can also help businesses monitor and cut down on energy usage, such as turning off lights earlier or regulating the heating systems.

Big data

Similar to IoT, data technologies enable businesses to monitor, streamline and analyse the large quantity of information that they receive and make important sustainable business decisions. Businesses can look at areas where efficiency needs to improve, monitor the impact the business’ operations are having on the environment, or analyse areas in which employees can make changes, such as travelling. Businesses can then refine working practices, filtering the changes down throughout the company.

Remote working

The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the toll that rush hour traffic and travelling workers can have on the environment alongside the significant volume of energy usage from office buildings. Many businesses have adopted remote working policies this year, helping to reduce their environmental impact. However, if introducing a remote working policy, businesses need to be considering the right technology tools such Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams as well as a cloud-based IT infrastructure. This will help employees work just as effectively and productively from home as if they were in office.

Cloud capabilities

With a cloud-based digital infrastructure, a business can host some or all of its applications and data in a public, private, community or hybrid cloud platform and employees can benefit from seamless information and server access whenever they want it. Cloud takes away the need for on-site large server and data centres which can, if not managed properly, have a large impact on the environment.