Green tech and the private sector: How the UK government will hit its 2050 net-zero emissions goal

The other side of the enterprise equation

On the other side of the equation are the enterprises that may not be directly involved with the development and deployment of green technologies, but which have their own in-house net-zero targets to hit, and are looking at ways to minimise the environmental impact of their own activities.

For enterprises in that camp, the IT estate is one of the first places they should start looking to make changes, Craig Melson, associate director for climate, environment and sustainability at UK tech trade body TechUK, tells Computer Weekly in his recent IT Sustainability Think Tank article.

But first they need to make sure they have a firm grasp on the amount of greenhouse gases their organisation is emitting overall and how much of that can be attributed their IT estate’s activities.

“There are dozens of companies that can help calculate an enterprise’s emissions, using averages or more bespoke information,” he says, and there also exists cloud-based software that can help them get an accurate read on their emissions too.

Melson also advises enterprises to shift more of their IT workloads and applications to the cloud to “minimise their use of inefficient on-premise environments” and to consider aligning their IT procurement processes with the principles of operating in a circular economy.

“For personal staff devices, there is no need to buy new,” he says. “An estimated 80% of the carbon associated with devices comes from the manufacturing stage. Therefore, buying refurbished tech or keeping devices in use for longer dramatically brings down emissions and saves money.”

What goes around comes around

The government’s previously mentioned Mission zero report also features a recommendation that steps be taken to transition the UK over to a circular economy, including the creation of a task force that will work with industry to create “sector-specific circular economy business models”.

As detailed in the report, this task force will also be expected to work jointly with industry to identify “barriers and enablers” to UK businesses embracing circular economy-related ways of working.

“Money is being wasted on throwing things away or failing to reuse or refurbish them. More efficient use of resources can also bring immediate direct benefits to businesses.”

The report continues: “The circular economy is already providing economic opportunities: almost 90,000 new jobs were created in the circular economy across the UK between 2014 and 2019, taking the sector to almost 560,000 employees.

“An ambitious circular economy is likely to offer geographically dispersed employment across a range of occupations – in particular, reuse and open loop recycling activities are likely to be the least concentrated, requiring activity at local and regional levels.”

Shane Herath, chair of the Eco-Friendly Web Alliance, which was set up to help website operators find ways to cut the amount of carbon their sites emit, also advised enterprises on how they can go about incorporating circular economy principles into the way they work in his recent IT Sustainability Think Tank piece.

“Embracing the circular economy can pay significant dividends in achieving better sustainability in the IT estate,” he says. “A circular economy approach should be applied to enterprises’ supply chains and guide the selection and management of their suppliers.”

He adds: “IT leaders should always look at the entire lifecycle of the organisation’s products, services and processes, and the role technology can play in improving sustainability.”

As alluded to by TechUK’s Melson, enterprises could make some considerable headway with minimising their carbon emissions by optimising their datacentre estate, which is a view Jay Dietrich, Uptime Institute’s research director of sustainability, backed in his recent submission to the IT Sustainability Think Tank.

“With energy cost and supply concerns, and increased use of coal, projected to continue through 2023 and into 2024, investments in power management deployments, server and storage equipment consolidation, IT equipment refreshes, and automated IT space temperature and humidity control offer near-term paybacks and long-term benefits to the reliability, competitiveness and environmental performance of digital infrastructure operations,” he says.

“We must move quickly. Moving quickly must include spending money. We know that investing in net zero today will be cheaper than delaying, as well as increasing the economic and climate benefits”

The government’s net-zero review states the UK’s progress towards eradicating its greenhouse gas emissions has “exceeded expectations” since 2019, but there is so much more to do on the technology side of the equation, if the government is to hit its 2050 goal.

“We must move quickly… Moving quickly must include spending money. We know that investing in net zero today will be cheaper than delaying, as well as increasing the economic and climate benefits,” the report states.

“Oxford research has shown that a fast transition to net zero based on scaling up key green technologies will continue to drive their costs down, and transitioning to a decarbonised energy system based on green technologies by 2050 can save the world at least $12tn, compared to continuing our current levels of fossil fuel use.”

So the path to net zero is not just one we need to follow to help save the planet, but also to help support the economy.