EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
WHY HAS SUSTAINABILITY BECOME A KEY PART OF THE CIOS ROLE ?
In Part Two of this Editor ’ s Question , we gain further insight from experts at SMS , Building Minds and Stellium Datacenters , as well as examining how CIOs must balance environmental promises and challenges .
According to Gartner , the benefits of Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) need to be balanced against the environmental implications and unintended consequences arising from hardware , model training and energy consumption . CIOs can use their digital knowledge and foundation to support the sustainability efforts of their organisations when implementing AI initiatives .
“ Gartner ’ s 2023 CEO survey showed that environmental issues entered the top 10 priority ranking for the first time in the history of the survey ,” said Bettina Tratz-Ryan , VP Analyst at Gartner . “ At the same time , CIOs are under increasing pressure from their executives , customers , employees , investors and regulators to initiate or reinvigorate their IT for sustainability programmes .
“ Almost two-thirds ( 64 %) of CEOs surveyed said combining digitalisation , such as AI adoption , and environmental sustainability is a growth opportunity . CIOs should take that as a call to be more proactive in establishing their leadership through the execution of sustainability transformation strategies and use sustainability as a platform for growth ,” added Tratz-Ryan .
For most CIOs , delivering on mandates and requirements means tracking and tracing on business KPIs , such as product carbon footprint or energy intensity . “ It is a matter of how the CIO applies their digital foundation , or their digital dividend , to accommodate their organisation ’ s digitalisation metrics , while delivering on the sustainability requirements – two for one ,” said Tratz-Ryan . “ Above all , even if the business is not prioritising sustainability yet , the CIO should make their digital foundation sustainability-ready .”
Weigh AI benefits against environmental risks and challenges
Although 78 % of surveyed CEOs said the benefits of AI outweigh the risks , the increasing number of organisations using AI , including Generative AI ( GenAI ) is leading to a growing environmental footprint of AI . Gartner predicts that by 2030 , AI could consume up to 3.5 % of the world ’ s electricity . “ AI consumes a lot of electricity and water . This negative impact should be mitigated ,” said Pieter den Hamer , VP Analyst at Gartner .
“ Executives should be cognizant of AI ’ s own growing environmental footprint and take active mitigation measures . For example , they could prioritise ( cloud ) data centres powered by renewable energy ”.
Gartner said public cloud providers can produce 70 % to 90 % fewer GHG emissions than traditional server rooms , owned data centres and midsize data centre facilities .
However , AI is not only bad news for environmental sustainability . In fact , AI ’ s own footprint is more than eclipsed by the potential use of AI to boost many sustainability initiatives .
“ This can only be achieved if business and IT leaders proactively initiate and foster a portfolio of AI initiatives that help achieve the sustainability and environment , social and governance ( ESG ) goals of their organisations ,” said den Hamer . “ For instance , AI can be used to predict demand more accurately and reduce the usage of raw materials and energy in manufacturing .
Being sustainability-ready applies to cloud and storage , infrastructure and operations , digital threads and the rapidly growing adoption of AI .
“ Overall , if used in the right way and focused on the right use cases , AI can help companies mitigate sustainability risk , optimise costs and drive growth ,” added den Hamer .
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