Book Image

Sustainable IT Playbook for Technology Leaders

By : Niklas Sundberg
Book Image

Sustainable IT Playbook for Technology Leaders

By: Niklas Sundberg

Overview of this book

We are at a critical point in human history. Humanity is under threat, but all is not lost. We can take action! But how? Sustainable IT Playbook for Technology Leaders will show you how. It will walk you through the construction and implementation of a sustainable IT strategy and enable you to do your bit for the future of mankind. The book is split into three parts. Part I details the “why” and the clear and present danger that humanity faces today: the climate crisis. How did we get here, what are the immediate threats, what are the planetary boundaries that we need to peel back to safe levels, and what impact does IT have on society at large? Part II will focus on the "what.” It examines the nitty-gritty details of what we can do to unlock significant returns on sustainable investments toward a more sustainable future. Part III, the final part of the book, focuses on the “how.” How do you turn your ideas into action? What do you need to do to establish your baseline and your direction of travel towards your objective? This part provides tangible case studies and explains how you can start your journey today to begin delivering global and impactful objectives. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to plan, implement, and communicate a sustainable IT strategy and set yourself apart as a progressive technology leader.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Part 1: Why Is Sustainable IT Important?
4
Part 2: What Are Sustainable IT Practices?
12
Part 3: How Do You Accelerate Sustainable IT?

The unprecedented growth of IT

As we have seen in the previous chapters, IT has an impact on the environment but also leads to a series of direct and indirect impacts. The entire ICT sector emits around 3-4% (UN Environment Programme n.d.) of global greenhouse gases, and data centers account for 1-2% of global electricity use and greenhouse gas emissions (Kamiya 2021). It will significantly increase the environmental impact unless we find other, more sustainable ways to deliver IT.

In the last decade, we have seen massive growth in internet traffic and data center workloads. We have observed a two-fold increase in internet users and a 15-fold increase in global internet traffic (Kamiya 2021). Fortunately, due to significant improvements in energy efficiency, the energy to power data centers worldwide has remained flat at around 1-2%. Figure 3.1 illustrates the growth in internet traffic between 2010 and 2020, data center workloads, and data center energy use:

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