Organizations failing to use tech to reach sustainability goals

While the vast majority of organizations say they take their sustainability goals very seriously, only a few are using technology to cut their environmental footprint and shape their overall sustainability strategy.

Research from Kyndryl and Microsoft shows leaders increasingly recognize the benefits of sustainability initiatives for their organizations, with 38% having increased their sustainability goals and program execution since last year.

“As the world faces increasing climate-related challenges, businesses are under pressure to act decisively and place sustainability at the forefront – and this year’s Global Sustainability Barometer study highlights that organizations must move from intent to collective action to drive change,” said Faith Taylor, chief corporate citizenship and sustainability officer at Kyndryl.

“By integrating sustainability into a company’s business strategy, processes and systems, organizations can maximize the value of their people and technology to achieve internal goals and deliver positive impact.”

However, while 84% of organizations say they place a high strategic importance on achieving sustainability goals, only 21% are doing this with the help of technology.

More than half (54%) say sustainability goals and initiatives are already incorporated into their reporting processes, and only 19% are making full use of their data for strategic planning and decision making.

Similarly, 55% believe that AI will significantly impact their sustainability goals, but 62% are limiting what they’re doing to analyzing historical data for monitoring and reporting.

Matthew Sekol, a sustainability global black belt at Microsoft, said enterprises should embrace technologies such as AI as this can help identify areas of improvement and deliver marked operational efficiency benefits.

“Companies can gain the insights needed to deliver on their commitments and drive resilience by integrating sustainability data with operational and financial data, and using traditional data analytics and robust AI tooling to reshape operational efficiencies and foster sustainable innovations.”

The report advises putting technology at the heart of strategic planning, and using predictive AI to forecast energy needs based on current trends and patterns – something only 37% of organizations are currently doing.

Disparate data across various enterprise planning systems should also be integrated to make decisions more informed, according to Microsoft and Kyndryl.

Finally, organizations should create cross-functional teams – in particular including finance and technology – to help make sustainability a core business priority and make sure plans are actually implemented.

While the benefit of AI for sustainability is gaining traction, AI’s environmental impact remains a growing concern. Only a third of organizations are considering the energy implications of their AI solutions,the study noted.

However, a significant portion are increasingly training AI models on public cloud providers with strong green credentials and renewable energy commitments.

“As organizations increasingly recognize sustainability as a strategic imperative, we’re witnessing a surge of innovation and collaboration. AI is at the forefront of this movement, empowering businesses to optimize resource consumption, reduce waste and drive positive environmental impact,” said Ullrich Loeffler, CEO and co-founder of Ecosystm.

“By uniting our efforts and leveraging technology, we can create a more sustainable and equitable future for generations to come.”