What can digital professionals do to create a greener society?

Creating a sustainable business has never been more important.  

The hashtag #climatechange has recently been eclipsed by #climateemergency.  

It is no longer about steadily progressing towards being a business that meets their sustainability goals, it’s quickly becoming about streamlining and revolutionising your existing processes to ensure you’re positively contributing towards a greener society.  

Redefining your operations to create a greener business is obviously about reducing the speed of climate change first and foremost, but is also about reducing energy costs, minimising wastewater, improving the health and satisfaction of your staff, and attracting customers who are looking to buy from brands who have values that match their own.  

It sort of goes without saying, but there are the obvious things we can do to be more eco-friendly within the office such as: 

• Recycle what you can; 
• Use environmentally friendly products; 
• Install energy efficient appliances; 
• Replace fluorescent lighting with LED alternatives; 
• Stop using all single use plastics; 
• Reduce energy consumption;  
• Use reusable containers; 
• Encourage employees to change their commute, car share etc; 
• Maximise natural lighting;  
• Bring plants indoors.

But beyond these initiatives, what can we do to create a greener society as digital professionals? How can you use digital channels to better educate your customers about what they can do to act more sustainably?  

Powering down unused environments 

By hosting your digital solutions in Cloud hosting services like Microsoft Azure, you are more enabled than ever before to become more digitally sustainable.  

Through automation, Azure customers can “turn off” non-critical server environments such as dev or test when they are not in use. This not only cuts costs and stops you paying for services you are not using, but also ensures that you are able to reduce your energy consumption and your carbon footprint as you shutdown selected services overnight.  

We have recently been accredited as a Microsoft Gold Partner in Cloud Platform technology. If you would like to find out more about how you can host your digital solutions in a scalable, secure service, that helps you reach your goals to become a sustainable business, we can help.  

Host solutions in eco-friendly environments 

According to the International Energy Agency, datacentres accounted for roughly around 200 terawatt-hours of electricity consumption in 2019. That is almost 1 per cent of global use. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, millions of us throughout the world have had to transition to working from home and the level of consumption will have undoubtedly risen because of this.  

So how can we host our solutions in a more sustainable way?  

Some datacentres and cloud providers are making significant efforts to be cleaner and greener than others. Last year, Google announced plans to invest up to $2 billion in clean power and last summer, Microsoft reeled up a shipping-container-size datacentre from the sea in Scotland, that proved the concept of underwater datacentres are feasible, as well as logistically, environmentally, and economically practical – with a failure rate in water that is one-eighth of what’s normally experienced on land.  

In addition to this, cloud hosting service Microsoft Azure also has a sustainability calculator that users can access via their Power BI service, this enables them to understand their own environment, and access recommendations about how they can become more digitally sustainable. Click here to try it for yourself.  

Better educate your customers  

According to Forbes, 88% of consumers want their suppliers to help them make a difference.  

So how can you educate your customers on how to use your services responsibly, to adopt eco-friendly practices, and to live their lives sustainably?  

Do your digital channels clearly represent the efforts your company is making towards becoming a sustainable, carbon free business? Do you have content to educate your customers to act sustainably that is currently being overlooked?  

Digital experience platforms like the Episerver DXC make showing your customers content that’s most relevant to them a breeze, enabling you to create compelling content experiences for your customers, providing them with a friction-free experience, guiding them to the content around how to reduce your energy consumption, how much water you can save each month by living differently, or how you can increase your pension contributions by saving money on your energy bills.  

Providing your customers with educational content not only adds to the value they’re getting from your company, but it can also help them to help you achieve your goals of becoming a more sustainable business.  

If you are looking to ensure that your content is optimised and being shown to your customers who are looking for information around how they can be more sustainable, we can help.  

Digital transformation 

We are pretty sure you are aware of what digital transformation is, but for those of you who are not so sure… digital transformation is the adoption of digital technology, the process of transforming previously non-digital or manual processes into streamlined digital processes that enable you to better serve your customers.  

In addition to the numerous opportunities to better serve your customers that a digital transformation journey presents your business with, it also enables you to become a more sustainable business.  

Digitally transforming your business enables you to… 

• Implement new digital channels that reduce paper-based communications such as MyAccount services; 
• Better communicate with your customers via personalised content, presenting you with opportunities to provide specific customers with products and services that are most relevant to their preferences;  
• Implement virtual assistants that increase customer self-serve and reduce energy consuming call centre volumes. 

Are you looking to increase your efforts to become a more sustainable business?  

Are you tasked with better educating your customers about how to use your services more sustainably?  

We can help. Contact us today to find out how we can help you to optimise your current processes to increase your business sustainability, and progress towards becoming a carbon-zero business.