Net Zero for the Tech Industry

The technology sector has some of the world’s most successful and popular businesses, with expertise in scaling innovations that often inspire others to follow. Tech companies and their employees are driven by their vision for the future, influencing the way that people live and work.

The technology sector have a unique dual role to play in the global fight against climate change.
While technology has in many ways enhanced the way we work, live, and communicate, the sector’s huge growth has been damaging for the environment. The industry accounts for approximately 2-3% of global emissions currently, with that figure likely to substantially rise as digital technology is increasingly becoming a core part of everyday life. Therefore, it is vital that the sector understands its responsibility in minimising impacts on climate from its own operations and value chains to achieve net zero.​

Equally important is the role that the influence that the technology sector can play in facilitating global net zero transition by helping a wide range of sectors.  

The net zero transition provides the tech sector with exciting and unique opportunities to use the skills, expertise and influence of the industry to develop rapid and disruptive innovation, which can play a key role in accelerating the net zero transition globally.

Key challenges, quick wins and enablers for the sector

Digital services like streaming, online storage, and cloud computing rely on massive data centres that consume immense amounts of energy. These facilities run 24/7 to keep our data accessible. In 2020, data centres alone were estimated to account for about 1% of global energy-related Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. 

World leading technology companies have been prominently leading the way in setting out ambitious net zero targets and goals that are years ahead of the targets laid out by other sectors. The challenge for the sector is being able to balance these decarbonisation areas whilst managing the increased missions resulting from the exponential growth that sector has seen and continues to see.
Our sector strategy team has developed a guide that focuses on identifying some of the key focus areas that the technology sector will need to address if it hopes to achieve its net zero ambitions:
1) Data usage
2) Manufacturing processes
3) Supply and value chain
It also gives insight into the steps that the technology industry can take to tackle wider social sustainability issues such as digital poverty.

Finally, the guide links to relevant services that Energise provides for customers that can tackle these challenges.