The relevance of World Environment Day shouldn’t ideally be restricted to a single day. With global energy consumption anticipated to double in the next 30 years, the tech industry is being called upon to deliver sustainable solutions to reduce its carbon footprint. Here’s a rundown of the top eight IT companies based on their active campaigns and sustainability initiatives to make the world a better place.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of World Environment Day, first observed during the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden. The theme chosen for this year – Only One Earth – reinforces “the significance of living in harmony with nature and adopting greener lifestyles.†Furthermore, the idea emphasizes that transformational changes can be achieved through governmental measures and personal decisions.
The theme for this year highlights that achieving global sustainability requires a wide range of sustainable ideas, climate-friendly initiatives, and players, not the least of which are tech companies.
Although all industries contribute to reaching global sustainability goals, IT companies must offer products and services that allow sustainability efforts within the industry and across all sectors. Electronic gadgets are expected to account for 15% of global emissions by 2040, not to mention that the globe created 57.4 million tonnes of electronic garbage in 2021 alone. While other industrial sectors are focused on making their products and services more sustainable, tech firms are focusing on how to assist customers in using their products and services in ways that help the world achieve its sustainability goals.
Top Ways IT Companies Can Lead the Global Sustainability Charge
As the demand for energy is expected to double within the next 30 years, the world will look to the tech sector for solutions to meet that demand without negatively affecting the environment. It will look to tech companies for the following reasons:
- To develop the technology that will enable smart grids to respond effectively to increased energy demands and clean energy sources
- To deploy “smart building†technology that can respond to heat and energy demands more efficiently
- To apply IoT and AI in intelligent traffic systems and public transit to reduce carbonization, and make farming practices more sustainable through technology such as moisture sensors and smart irrigation
- To deploy carbon-reducing technologies enabling on-demand manufacturing, supply chain optimization and predictive maintenance
But before tech companies can develop solutions that will support decarbonization for other industry sectors, they must first examine their operations and supply chains to minimize carbon emissions. They must work on minimizing the negative effects of the proliferation of technology on the environment. Mobile phones, data centers and PCs are here to stay. But they also come with increased energy use, as well as increased use of and disposal of rare metals and minerals.Â
See More: Green Campaigns to Inspire You This World Environment Day
Leading IT Companies Actively Pushing for Environmental Stewardship
Here are eight tech organizations (listed in alphabetical order) that are leading the charge toward worldwide sustainability – what they have done and what they plan to do.
Alphabet
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, became carbon neutral in 2007. By 2017, it had replaced its total electricity consumption with renewable energy – thus, becoming the world’s largest corporate buyer of renewable energy. As a result, Alphabet has reduced its carbon dioxide output by approximately 5 million tons per year.Â
Future plans: Alphabet plans to continue investing in renewable energy generation and storage technologies to meet its goal of “full-time, carbon-free energy operations by 2030.â€
Apple
All Apple facilities run entirely on renewable energy. In 2020, Apple began working to reduce its facilities’ energy use and that of its suppliers. Apple is also developing more and more products composed of recycled plastics. In FY 2020, the company developed more than 70 components consisting of recycled plastic. Around 12% of materials used in manufacturing its devices are recycled.Â
Apple says that 19% of a device’s overall carbon footprint comes mainly from powering and recharging the device. As a result, Apple has been working to decrease the average energy usage of its products by 70% since 2008. In addition, several of Apple’s products have achieved 100% zero waste certifications, which has diverted over 1.3 million metric tons of e-waste from landfills since 2015. From 2015 through 2020, Apple decreased the plastic used in their packaging from 21% to 6%.
Future plans: Apple will continue to work toward its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. It also plans to have all its products run on renewable energy and eliminate plastics in their packaging by 2025. Manufacturing products using only 100% recyclable and renewable materials made with renewable energy is this company’s ultimate goal.Â
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems has exceeded its objective (by 115%) of eliminating 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain between 2012 and 2020. The corporation has decreased greenhouse gas emissions by 60% inside its facilities by purchasing 85% of its worldwide power from renewable sources. Cisco’s sites in the U.S. are now powered entirely by renewable energy sources.
The organization used 35% recycled plastic to make 2.72 million 7800 IP phones. In 2019, the firm switched to reusable pallet coverings, preventing 79,000 pounds of plastic from entering landfills. Additionally, its sustainability solutions were used to develop smart parking solutions in Paris, attain 75% energy savings from smart lighting solutions in Romania, and use sensors to route autonomous shuttles to public transit stops in Las Vegas, Nevada.Â
Future plans: Cisco’s future ambitions include a 30% reduction in supply chain-related greenhouse gas emissions between 2019 and 2030. It also intends to achieve water neutrality, or equilibrium between water demand and supply, in its facilities.
Dell
Dell lowered its carbon emissions by roughly 48,000 metric tons between 2019 and 2020 by implementing energy consumption reduction programs at supplier plants. Dell has also raised the quantity of freshwater conserved by 45% while reducing the amount of water emitted by 48% during the same time.
Future plans: Dell wants to lower its greenhouse gas emissions by 60% per unit of sales by 2030 and attain net-zero emissions by 2050 through working with its suppliers.
See More: It’s Not Optional: 4 Tips to Create a Culture of Sustainability in the Workplace
HP
Over the following decade, HP aims to minimize its supply chain emissions, total worldwide operations emissions, and water use. HP is dedicated to employing recycled materials in new products and packaging and using fewer resources overall. Consequently, HP’s Original Ink cartridges made of recycled plastic “had a 33% lower carbon footprint and consumed up to 75% less water.†HP collaborates with firms like BMW and Nike to use 3-D printing technology to cut waste.
Future plans: By “creating a less materials-intensive system, optimizing paper use and printing, and striving for 100% renewable energy,†HP intends to reach carbon neutrality in its operations by 2025 and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030. It intends to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. Also, the plans include eliminating 75% of its single-use plastic packaging by 2025 compared to 2018 levels. It also intends to increase the number of recycled plastics in its printers and other equipment by 30% by 2025.Â
Intel
Intel returned or recovered 90% of freshwater consumption by 2020. Intel has also expanded its renewable energy supply and procurement by 82% globally and 100% in the U.S., Europe, Israel, and Malaysia during the previous five years. It has used circular economy strategies to reuse, recover, or recycle 63% of its production waste streams. Besides Intel’s sustainability initiatives, the firm has created a solution for enabling current energy networks to respond to new energy consumption demands and support renewable energy sources better.
Future plans: By 2030, Intel wants to have zero overall trash in the landfill and use 100% renewable power throughout its entire worldwide operations. It also intends to boost the energy efficiency of its client and server microprocessors by a factor of ten by 2030.Â
Intel plans to achieve “net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its global operations by 2040, to increase the energy efficiency and lower the carbon footprint of Intel products and platforms with specific goals, and to work with customers and industry partners to create solutions that lower the greenhouse gas footprint of the entire technology ecosystem.†To that end, Intel is investing over $700 million for a research and development mega lab focused on “innovative data center technologies and addressing areas such as heating, cooling, and water usage.â€
Microsoft
Microsoft has invested $50 million in its sustainability goals, including reducing greenhouse emissions. It has also invested $10 million in water replenishment projects within and outside the company.Â
Future plans: Microsoft is not only planning to become carbon negative by 2030 but also intends to remove all the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere that it has emitted since it was founded in 1975 by 2050. The company is also working to accelerate recycling and reduce waste across its operations, products and packaging. The company plans to shift to 100% renewable energy by 2025. For its customers, there are plans to use AI to implement sustainability initiatives that minimize the negative environmental impact of certain farming practices and to develop solutions for pulling carbon from the atmosphere, fighting wildfires and protecting endangered species.Â
Samsung
In 2019, Samsung moved to recycled and sustainably sourced packaging. It also moved from disposable materials in its manufacturing and packing operations. Samsung’s efforts to expand renewable energy at its worksites have led to a three-fold increase in renewable energy usage between 2018 through 2020. 100% of the energy used at their worksites in the US, Europe and China is from renewable energy sources. It has recycled 95% of its manufacturing waste in 2020, reduced its carbon emissions by 259 million tons from 2009 through 2020, and collected 4.54 tons of e-waste in 2020.Â
Future plans: Samsung is working toward collecting 7.5 million tons of e-waste by 2030. It also plans to expand its use of renewable energy to other regions.Â
Key takeaway – “Only One Worldâ€
World Environment Day reminds us that global sustainability is everyone’s responsibility. By bringing together key stakeholders to collaborate and innovate, tech companies are taking the lead in developing products and services needed to decarbonize their operations. They are also taking the lead in identifying and developing new technologies that can help the world achieve its sustainability goals.Â
Are these efforts by big tech firms enough to cut carbon emissions? Let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!Â
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