As enterprises face growing pressure to reduce environmental impact—driven by tighter regulation, investor expectations, and talent demands—sustainable IT is no longer optional. As a result, we've listed 9 sustainable tactics you can implement,
As enterprises face growing pressure to reduce environmental impact—driven by tighter regulation, investor expectations, and talent demands—sustainable IT is no longer optional. When done right, it lowers costs, fuels innovation, and enhances resilience.Here are nine practical strategies to integrate sustainability into your IT operations—and how Auxilium can help you lead the charge.
User devices often exceed the carbon footprint of data centers. McKinsey estimates that laptops, smartphones, and printers generate 1.5–2× more emissions than large-scale computing infrastructure TechTarget.
Best Practices:
- Increase device lifecycle through reuse and refurbishment
- Reduce the fleet size by avoiding unnecessary refreshes
- Deploy robust IT asset tracking to manage device use and retirement effectively
Migrating to cloud infrastructure powered by renewables can reduce data center emissions by over 55%
Best Practices:
Select providers with low PUE and renewable energy commitments
Use tools like ThoughtWorks’ open-source Cloud Carbon Footprint to track emissions from AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud TechTarget
Software consumes resources too—yet energy usage often remains invisible. Sustainable practices reduce carbon footprint and technical debt.
Best Practices:
Make decisions driven by emissions alongside costs
Encourage developers to focus on energy efficiency: avoid redundancy, reuse models, and prefer lightweight algorithms.
Explore tools from the Green Software Foundation for measuring Software Carbon Intensity.
Digital experiences can be streamlined to reduce energy use. Heavy websites and apps demand more bandwidth and power.
Best Practices:
- Trim unnecessary features; prioritise purpose over flair
- Implement lazy loading for media and content
- Focus on inclusive design—lightweight, accessible, and resource-conscious
Think beyond finance. GreenOps integrates an emissions lens into operations, driving decisions such as optimal server capacity, geographic routing for greener energy, and timing jobs to cleaner power windows.
With the right metrics, sustainability becomes a strategic advantage—not just a compliance box.Best Practices:Track energy use, emission rates, and wasteFrame sustainability in financial terms: reduced energy bills, improved risk posture, stronger brand positioning.
AI services, especially generative models, come with steep energy and water costs—e.g., a ChatGPT query may use 10× more energy than a Google search TechTarget.
Best Practices:
- Prioritise energy-efficient models
- Encourage reuse of pre-trained models as opposed to costly training from scratch
- Maintain documentation of code, training data, and models for reuse and auditability.
Data centers are energy-intensive—but you can cut costs and emissions with smart design and practices.
Best Practices:
- Invest in renewable energy and efficient PUE
- Optimise cooling, HVAC, and power distribution.
- Strengthen waste management and recycling protocols
Sustainable IT requires culture, not just technology.
Best Practices:
Train your staff on environmental impact and sustainable design.
- Organise green-focused hackathons or innovation blitzes
- Empower every team member to contribute to sustainable outcomes
Integrated sustainability delivers powerful benefits:
- Cost Efficiency: Reduce energy bills and hardware turnover
- Future Readiness: Align with evolving ESG requirements and board expectations (e.g., CSRD, digital product passports)
- Positioning: Gain early advantage before regulations penalize non-compliance
- Enhanced Reputation & Recruitment: Attract talent and investors who value responsibility and resilience
We help you translate sustainability into strategy, implementation, and operations across your IT estate—from cloud through hardware to culture.
What we offer:
- Sustainability assessments and emissions baselining
- Cloud optimization
- Device lifecycle solutions including refurbishment programs
- Sustainable software and Consulting
- Internal training to engage staff and drive change
Ready to make sustainability your competitive edge?
Contact Auxilium for a free IT sustainability audit—let’s reduce your footprint and grow your impact, together.
