From Infosys to Accenture, how tech companies are trying to go green

They are using technology to monitor their carbon footprint and reduce greenhouse gas emissions

The carbon emissions of India’s technology outsourcing industry plummeted by 85 per cent in FY21 owing to reduced travel brought about by the pandemic, market intelligence firm UnearthInsight said in a report published earlier this month.
 
Research by Accenture has found that moving the workload to the public cloud can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 59 million tonnes per year, the equivalent of taking 22 million cars off the road.
 
Yet, the information technology (IT) industry generates 4 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and this seems set to increase.
 
Experts say sustainability is about more than reporting your carbon footprint or implementing carbon taxes. Technology can help companies measure their carbon footprint across the value chain. This allows them to make decisions that uphold sustainability.
 
Indeed, measuring their impact on the environment or reducing their carbon footprint is an important part of the work companies are doing today.
 
Akamai Technologies, a global content delivery network, cybersecurity and cloud services company, says it uses a variety of performance indicators to assess its footprint. The method it uses is similar to how it measures the performance of its network such as monitoring its power utilisation effectiveness across its operations.

 
“We also have an environmental management system which helps us closely monitor our emissions and electricity impact across the globe. We have selected tools that help us maintain our programme in compliance with ISO 14001 standards. Our system helps us develop a plan, take action, monitor results and evaluate the effectiveness of those actions,” says Prasad Mandava, Akamai India’s managing director and vice-president of engineering.
 
Mid-sized technology services firm Persistent Systems also adheres to the ISO 14064 standard for monitoring and reducing greenhouse gases. The Pune-based company has a 34-strong team across India that monitors sustainability, and is aiming for a 3 per cent yearly reduction in emissions under ISO 14064-1:2018 guidelines.
 
“We have dashboards to monitor solar and wind generation, based on the Internet of Things (IoT) and we take these inputs into excel sheets along with our energy consumption at each of our campuses and convert it to carbon emissions/credits,” says Jayant Konde, Persistent’s chief administrative officer.
 
Infosys, which has always been vocal about managing its carbon footprint, says it has brought down its monthly per capita energy consumption by 55.06 per cent between FY08 and FY20. Smart automation-enabled remote monitoring and control and optimisation of operations across 150 buildings spanning 30 million sq ft of space played a part.
 
“Controllers and sensors ensure building systems like air conditioning operate in autopilot mode with in-built scheduling and energy-saving algorithms, providing real-time data, alerts and diagnostics at the system and equipment levels,” the firm said in its Sustainability Report for 2019-20.
 
Apart from internal monitoring, companies are helping their clients monitor their carbon footprint as well.
 
TCS has launched TCS Clever Energy, an enterprise-level energy and emission management system that makes use of the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence (AI) and the cloud.
 
Accenture’s offering, myNav Green Cloud Advisor, helps companies design cloud solutions that reduce carbon emissions and lay a foundation for responsible innovation.
 
Accenture has also partnered with an applied research team at Carnegie Mellon University to establish a carbon emissions scoring system and certification for green cloud solutions to help organisations measure carbon emissions against their industry peers.
 
Capgemini’s offering helps clients reduce its IT carbon footprint. The Capgemini Research Institute suggests that 61 per cent of organisations that have built a comprehensive roadmap to accelerate sustainable IT implementation have realised improved environmental, social and governance scores, 56 per cent have seen improved customer satisfaction and 44 per cent have witnessed tax savings as a direct result of sustainable IT practices.
 
“Moreover, companies that have already scaled sustainable IT use cases have achieved 12 per cent cost savings on average,” says Capgemini. 
 
The offering has already been given to several key clients in the banking, insurance, utilities, manufacturing, public services and energy sectors.
 
Corporates are also deploying technology tools and digital practices to enlarge their plans for reducing the impact they have on climate change.