Chartered accountants have a greater role to play in assuring and monitoring the sustainability reports of companies

Niladri

<blockquote>
&ldquo;The public interest responsibilities of being a CA are set to become even greater: CAs will find themselves at the forefront of ensuring the accuracy and reliability of information on climate change and other forms of sustainability.&rdquo;
</blockquote>
&mdash; James Barbour Chartered Accountants, Director, Technical Policy
<h2>The role of chartered accountants in the sustainable revolution</h2>
Organizations today are under the threat of global warming, climate change, social degradation, and economic crisis. Stakeholders, including shareholders, customers, employees, and regulatory authorities, demand transparency and accountability on sustainability and ESG. Today, brand reputation and competition are dependent on the sustainability stance of a company.
This puts the role of chartered accountants (CA) at the forefront of ensuring the accuracy and reliability of information and increases their responsibilities to a greater extent. Even staying up to date with legislation and good practices is part of their daily tasks now. In April 2021, the EU introduced a draft corporate sustainability reporting directive, replacing the previous non-financial reporting directive. By 2024, IFRS S1 and S2 will be implemented as well. The objective of IFRS S1 is for organizations in the EU to disclose information about sustainability, while IFRS S2 focuses more on climate-related risks and opportunities.
Sustainability reporting has become a priority. These reports provide information about environmental, social, and governance performance and are crucial to integrated reporting that provides insights into both the financial and non-financial performance of the organization. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has clearly renowned supremacy in accounting and assurance practices, and in 2011, it collaborated with GRI Focal Point of India. CAs will now also be responsible for the administration of sustainability reporting practices of companies along with financial auditing and assurance. According to a recent survey, 50% of sustainability reports in India are externally assured. CAs will have an extended responsibility and a greater role to play, not only in auditing financials but also in assuring and monitoring the sustainability reports of companies.
The auditor&rsquo;s primary objective is to obtain reasonable assurance about material misstatement in the financial statements to enable them to report whether the financial statements are prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the applicable financial reporting framework (i.e., in the context of risks of material misstatement related to amounts and disclosures that may be affected depending on the facts and circumstances of the entity). Auditors also <a href="https://www.cpacanada.ca/en/business-and-accounting-resources/audit-and-assurance/standards-other-than-cas/publications/sustainability-assurance-resources" target="_blank" rel="noopener">need to understand</a> how climate-related risks relate to their responsibilities under professional standards, and applicable law and regulation.
IAASB has introduced the International Standard on Sustainability Assurance 5000 to include assurance of sustainability reporting. The goal is to enhance the trust and confidence of investors, regulators, and other stakeholders in sustainability information through this global sustainability standard.
Chartered accountants will play a significant role in sustainability assurance by leveraging their expertise in financial reporting, auditing, and assurance services. Sustainability assurance refers to the process of independently evaluating and verifying an organization's sustainability performance and reporting, which includes its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices.
<h2>What can chartered accoutants do?</h2>
<ul>
<li>Technical expertise: Applying their technical expertise in financial reporting and auditing standards to assess the accuracy and reliability of sustainability information, ensuring it complies with relevant reporting frameworks and standards, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or any other upcoming standards like IAASB.</li>
<li>Independent verification: Providing an independent and objective assessment of an organization's sustainability disclosures. This verification process adds credibility to the information provided by the organization, increasing transparency and trust among stakeholders, including investors, customers, and regulators.</li>
<li>Risk management: Identifying and mitigating sustainability-related risks. They can evaluate the impact of ESG factors on an organization's financial performance and provide recommendations for risk mitigation and strategic decision-making.</li>
<li>Reporting frameworks: Assisting organizations in selecting the most appropriate sustainability reporting framework and aligning their reporting with global best practices ensures that the disclosed information is relevant, comparable, and consistent over time.</li>
<li>Assurance engagements: Conducting assurance engagements tailored specifically to sustainability reporting, such as limited assurance or reasonable assurance engagements. These involve evaluating the processes and controls in place for collecting, measuring, and reporting sustainability data.</li>
<li>Integration with financial reporting: Integrating sustainability reporting with financial reporting allows stakeholders to understand the financial implications of sustainability initiatives and ESG performance. This integration helps organizations demonstrate the long-term value of their sustainability efforts.</li>
<li>Stakeholder engagement: Facilitating dialogue between organizations and their stakeholders helps companies better understand the expectations and concerns of investors, customers, employees, and the broader community. This engagement can lead to improved sustainability strategies and reporting.</li>
<li>Continuous improvement: Supporting organizations in establishing mechanisms for continuous improvement in sustainability reporting and performance. This includes helping companies set meaningful sustainability targets, monitor progress, and adjust strategies as needed.</li>
<li>Regulatory compliance: As governments and regulatory bodies increasingly focus on ESG disclosure requirements, Chartered Accountants can assist organizations in complying with these regulations and ensuring their reporting aligns with evolving standards.</li>
<li>Education and training: Contributing to building the capacity of organizations and professionals in the field of sustainability reporting and assurance through training and knowledge sharing.</li>
</ul>
<h2>What next?</h2>
This new role demands that chartered accountants be well-prepared. The current awareness and knowledge of sustainability require significant upskilling. CAs need comprehensive training on sustainability and ESG-related concepts. Understanding sustainable IT is crucial, especially since IT has a considerable negative contribution to sustainability. CAs must familiarize themselves with IT systems and the data these systems generate to create sustainability reports. Moreover, knowledge of various reporting frameworks like BRSR, GRI, and IAASB is vital. A scarcity of skilled CAs could be a major concern in many countries. CAs must understand the impact of climate risk in various business areas and discern ways to mitigate them.
Chartered accountants can take center stage in sustainability assurance by applying their financial expertise along with new areas of knowledge, conducting independent verification, managing risks, and helping organizations improve their sustainability reporting and performance. They should collaborate closely with Chief Sustainability Officers, Chief Risk Managers, and CIO/CTOs to guide organizations on their sustainability journey and contribute to making the world a better place to live.
illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability &amp; Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.

Greening the balance sheet: the role of chartered accountants in driving sustainability in corporate finance

IT is business. Every single business process is possible thanks to IT and these processes contribute to nearly 4% of the world’s carbon footprint, with measurements expecting this to rise to 13% by 2030

<h2>Introduction</h2>
IT is essential for businesses today. It is intertwined with every single business process of any organization. However, it contributes to a large number of carbon emissions and the impact becomes larger as new technologies such as generative AI and IoT devices develop and get implemented in business practices.
The GHG protocol defines 3 types of emissions. These are explained in the diagram below:
<img style="float: right;" src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/4d48f0b38f0e762d2506361dece5dc416e6d4f91.png?" alt="Graphic on GHG protocol" />
Nowadays many countries have put regulations in place with regards to ESG reporting. Non-manufacturing businesses such as banks or e-commerce platforms are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, especially emissions classified under scope 2 and 3. This side of the sector still needs improvement and better reporting.&nbsp;
Let us now see how observability helps in practicing sustainable IT and improving the carbon footprint reduction in its operations.&nbsp;
<h2>What is observability?</h2>
At its heart, sustainability is about people working together to ensure long-lasting harmony on our planet. Different understandings of this concept have sparked discussions due to varying origins, situations, and historical times. Matthew Bradley, sustainability director at IT services provider Capgemini, describes sustainable IT as &ldquo;an umbrella term that describes an environment-focused approach to the design, use, and disposal of computer hardware and software applications and the design of accompanying business processes.&rdquo;
Observability shows how well you can figure out what's happening inside a system by looking at what happens outside. In control theory, observability and controllability of a linear system are like two sides of the same coin.
In recent years, climate change has led to severe floods on one side of the world and severe droughts on the other. Many of these negative effects are caused by the way we treat our planet, by producing CO2 and other toxic gasses, and by the irresponsible use of water and minerals. We need to improve our practices to reduce these negative effects.
IT is one of the areas where an improvement in practices must be done. We must eliminate its negative effects by having a holistic vision, and this is impossible to achieve without complete visibility of the entire IT landscape.&nbsp;
Today, IT is business. Every single business process is possible thanks to IT and these processes contribute to nearly 4% of the world&rsquo;s carbon footprint, with some measurements expecting this number to rise to 13% by 2030. Some of the technologies contributing to this growth in the carbon footprint of the IT sector are generative AI and the increase in the use of IoT devices.&nbsp;
To be able to improve and reduce carbon footprint in IT, we need to have clear visibility of the entire value stream and the entire CI/CD pipeline. Today the CI/CD pipeline extends to production and hence requires complete visibility.&nbsp;
We need observability in the entire CI/CD pipeline extending to the production. We need to understand the impact of code in the production at an early stage from the perspective of the developer. We need to understand the impact of a release that is going to happen in production as operations practitioners and be ready for it in production.
Observability helps us to understand the inner state of the system through MELT &ndash; Metrics, Events, Logs and Traces. This gives us the visibility of how the system is working. From the sustainability point of view, we will start looking at how much resources like energy or water are getting used up for each piece of code or for each request being serviced. As we get a clear picture of how each resource is working and being used within the system, we can have a clear picture of how much carbon footprint we are creating for every customer transaction.&nbsp;
On the other hand, observability helps us to see the carbon footprint and water usage during every step of the process, from development and testing to the release and deployment phases for every new feature. Every incident, planned and unplanned, can be analyzed, providing us with a holistic view of the overall lifecycle assessment.
One important set of metrics we try to follow in SRE is Google&rsquo;s golden signals, we will see the great aid of these metrics as we progress. The 4 signals are:
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/058665502315d513734a9637b6ca5d530eaac667.jpg?" alt="graphic on the 4 signals of sustainable it" />
<h2>How observability contributes to sustainable IT practices&nbsp;</h2>
<h3>Proactive issue detection</h3>
Observability tools provide real-time insights into system behavior, allowing teams to identify issues before they escalate, minimizing downtime and resource wastage. According to Gartner, 70% of the total cost of projects are rework costs. This means a 70% hgiher carbon footprint. Proactively identifying and addressing issues will help reduce such rework.
<h3>Faster incident resolution</h3>
With detailed observability, we can quickly pinpoint the root cause of incidents, leading to faster resolution and reduced impact on users. This helps in the reduction of the carbon footprint as we take less time to detect an incident and rectify it.
 
<h3>Resource optimization</h3>
By monitoring key metrics like latency and error rates (golden signals), we can identify resource bottlenecks and optimize infrastructure, ensuring efficient resource utilization.
Resource optimization helps in reducing resource usage by optimizing and thus helps in further reduction in carbon footprint.
<h3>Capacity planning</h3>
Observability helps in understanding the system's resource usage patterns, enabling informed capacity planning, and preventing both over-provisioning and under-provisioning.
Having over-provisioning, we create a larger carbon footprint. Observability helps in reducing carbon footprint due to over-provisioning. 
<h3>Improved user experience</h3>
Monitoring user-facing metrics such as latency and traffic can help ensure a positive user experience, fostering user satisfaction and loyalty.
Less latency means more carbon footprint creation. Optimizing latency and other UX features like your webpage loading time and webpage contents leads to a smaller carbon footprint.
<h3>Continuous improvement</h3>
Observability provides data for continuous feedback and improvement cycles, facilitating iterative enhancements to the system's performance and reliability.
Proactively reducing outages and improvement leads to lesser carbon footprint creation.
 
<h3>Predictive analysis</h3>
Historical data collected through observability tools can be used to predict potential performance issues and plan for mitigation strategies, ensuring sustained system reliability.&nbsp;
As IBM has mentioned, the cost of rectifying a problem during production is 100 times more than the cost of rectifying it in the early stages. This is because more work needs to be done. Predictive analysis and chaos engineering will help in early detection, less work, and a decreased carbon footprint.
<h3>Automatic scaling</h3>
Observability-driven insights can trigger automatic scaling based on workload fluctuations, enhancing agility and adapting to changing demands. This leads to a decreased need for the provisioning of resources and a decreased carbon footprint. We can scale up and down as required.
 
<h3>Meaningful SLAs</h3>
Golden signals guide the definition of meaningful service level objectives (SLO) by focusing on metrics that directly impact user experience and business outcomes.
Practical customer-driven SLOs help in having our services attain a level of service that is suitable to the customer. We do not need to set a very high level and thus optimize the resource utilization and thus reduce carbon footprint. 
<h3>Risk management</h3>
By closely monitoring error rates and saturation levels, we can mitigate risks associated with system failures and data breaches, safeguarding the organization's reputation.
This again helps in the optimization of resources. We can also look at sustainability-related metrics and risk management related to sustainability risks and thus help in practicing sustainability.
 
<h3>Energy efficiency</h3>
Observability aids in identifying energy-intensive processes and optimizing them, contributing to more environmentally sustainable IT operations.
This leads to lesser energy consumption and thus lesser carbon footprint creation. 
<h3>Cascading failure prevention</h3>
Observability enables the identification of dependencies and potential points of failure, allowing us to implement safeguards against cascading failures.&nbsp;
This helps in understanding the overall impact and enables organizations to optimize holistically, resulting in more efficient systems and more sustainable systems. 
<h3>Collaborative problem solving</h3>
Observability tools provide a common data source for cross-functional teams, enabling collaborative problem-solving and alignment between development and operations.
This helps in reducing duplication of work, and duplication of data and avoids unnecessary rework and reduction of technical debts.
 
<h3>Documentation and knowledge sharing</h3>
Observability data can be used to create detailed documentation about system behaviour and troubleshooting steps, promoting knowledge sharing within the team.&nbsp;
The use of this data in AIOps further improves our ability to identify and rectify problems faster, thus a lot more efficiency in the system and managing the system leading to more sustainable IT practice.
 
<h3>Regulatory compliance</h3>
Observability helps ensure compliance with regulatory requirements related to system performance, security, and user data protection.
This will help in also reporting scope 2 and scope 3 emissions as part of the ESG reporting which is becoming mandatory in many countries. 
<h3>Business continuity</h3>
Observability strengthens business continuity by reducing downtime, maintaining a positive user experience, and supporting critical operations even during challenging circumstances. Recently, an outage occurred in Microsoft's data center as the climate became so hot that the cooling system could not handle it and the center crashed. Observability is important not only in the IT systems but also in considering external factors to ensure business continuity.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
There are many limitations on how observability is practiced. Some of the existing challenges include lack of end-to-end coverage, adoption of SLOs, or large uses of SLAs without focusing on outcomes. Systems are spread across and thus the data is dissipated instead of being consolidated. Observability is seen as an item on the Ops side, though it is also essential on the Dev side.
Incorporating observability not only enhances the reliability of IT systems but also aligns with sustainable IT practices by optimizing resource utilization and preventing unnecessary downtime or disruptions.
Since IT is now mandatory for organizations throughout various domains and in many countries, it has become necessary for the industry to gear up and start practicing sustainability.
illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability &amp; Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.

Sustainable IT through observability

IT practitioners cannot ignore the sustainability movement. They must practice sustainable IT and enable sustainability in business

In this article, I try to bring out the need for IT practitioners to be aware and conscious of sustainability. I define what sustainability IT is and then move forward to understand the current situation, thus establishing the need for practicing it, as well as looking at the various puzzle pieces of sustainable IT. Finally, I explore the aspect of enabling sustainability in business through IT.
The ICT sector is often overlooked when it comes to sustainability. However, it is one of the biggest contributors to companies&rsquo; carbon footprints. This brings to light the need for sustainable IT. The definition I like is:&nbsp;
<blockquote>
&ldquo;Sustainable IT refers to the practice of designing, using, and disposing of technology in a way that reduces its negative impact on the environment and promotes sustainable development. It involves using technology in a way that is energy-efficient, environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable.&rdquo;
</blockquote>
Various surveys provide us with valuable statistics about the topic:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The information and communication technology (ICT) sector contributes to approximately 4% of global CO2 emissions, comparable to the carbon emissions of the aviation sector. By 2040, projections indicate that the ICT carbon footprint could reach 14%&rdquo;. &ndash; according to the <a href="https://ciandt.com/ca/en-ca/article/climate-crisis-and-technology-sector">latest report</a> by the IPCC</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Capgemini survey talks about the footprint of the IT sector. It states that &ldquo;only 43% of executives are even aware of their organization&rsquo;s IT Footprint&rdquo;. &ldquo;Only 18% have a comprehensive sustainability strategy, with well-defined goals and target timelines&rdquo;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The same survey shows a 21% of global electricity consumption is used for the production and operation of ICT and a 20% increase in the production of e-waste in the last five years &ndash; 55.5 million tons.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">However, it also shows that &ndash; 79% of consumers are changing preferences based on sustainability, and 46% of employees would only work for a company with sustainable practices.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">In the EU alone, more than 160,000 laptops are disposed off every day and 70% of those can be reused.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iea.org/energy-system/buildings/data-centres-and-data-transmission-networks" target="_self">recent report by the IEA</a>&nbsp;found that data center power consumption increased by over 60 percent between 2015 and 2021, and transmission networks' usage grew up to 60 percent.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A recent report by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/electric-power-and-natural-gas/our-insights/decarbonizing-the-grid-with-24-7-clean-power-purchase-agreements">McKinsey &amp; Co.</a>&nbsp;found that a solar PPA, which enables &ldquo;100 percent renewable&rdquo; claims, actually only reduces emissions for the off-taker between 40-50 percent, due to the intermittent availability of solar power.</li>
</ul>
We can clearly see why we need to focus on practicing sustainable IT. It ensures that businesses are not only sustainable but also resilient and profitable. It requires re-imagining the way of doing business and also designing and managing our systems in a new way. This will require innovative approaches. Some of the areas sustainable IT helps in are:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Building brand reputation</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Helps in cost-out transformation</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Adhere to compliance</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Innovate</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Better employee engagement</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Perform social responsibility</li>
</ul>
<h2>The puzzle pieces of sustainable IT</h2>
Sustainable IT is not just about data centers. As per McKinsey, the largest contributor to carbon emissions within IT is not data centers but rather end-user devices. We need to look at the various elements of the lifecycle as puzzle pieces. We must improve in each of these aspects and look at a more holistic approach than improving in silos. We need to look at the domain, understand how each type of customer is using it, and accordingly work on the hardware, software, and process to achieve improvements through innovation.&nbsp;
Just trying to improve latency and work on the infrastructure to do it is not going to move the needle. We need to re-architect both software and hardware based on customer needs. If the customer's last mile is not good enough for more improved latency, we do not need to put our efforts into improving the service provider end.
The 10 levers for sustainable IT are a set of guidelines that help organizations reduce their environmental impact while still using technology effectively. These levers were developed by the Green Grid, a nonprofit organization focused on improving energy efficiency in data centers. Here are the 10 levers:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Efficient hardware: organizations can use energy-efficient hardware such as servers, storage devices, and networking equipment to reduce energy consumption and lower their carbon footprint.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Virtualization: by consolidating multiple physical servers onto a single physical server, organizations can reduce their hardware requirements and energy consumption.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Power management: organizations can implement power management technologies such as dynamic voltage and frequency scaling, which adjust the power consumption of IT equipment based on workload, to save energy.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Cooling: efficient cooling systems and best practices for airflow management can reduce energy consumption and improve the efficiency of data centers.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Renewable energy: organizations can reduce their reliance on fossil fuels by sourcing renewable energy such as wind, solar, and hydropower.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Recycling and end-of-life management: the proper disposal of electronic waste can reduce the environmental impact of IT equipment.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Procurement: organizations can choose to purchase IT equipment from vendors that prioritize sustainability and environmental stewardship.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Monitoring and measurement: monitoring and measuring energy consumption and environmental impact can help organizations identify areas for improvement and track progress over time.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">IT system optimization: organizations can optimize their IT systems to reduce energy consumption and improve performance.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Education and awareness: educating employees and stakeholders about the environmental impact of IT and the benefits of sustainability can promote a culture of sustainability within the organization.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Improving IT practices</h2>
The current way in which we use IT is causing irreparable effects on the planet. Hence, having greater consideration for the environment, starting from the design of new IT initiatives, will help to balance the pros and cons. We need to be extra careful to understand what benefit we are gaining with how much damage to the planet and then make the decision to go-or-not-go. We should try to reduce negative effects over and above offsetting. Some good practices are the following.
<h3>Circularity</h3>
We must look at the 9Rs way of thinking. This consists of 0) refuse, 1) rethink, 2) reduce, 3) reuse, 4) repair, 5) refurbish, 6) remanufacture, 7) repurpose, 8) recycle, and lastly 9) recover.
<h3>Application portfolio rationalization and management</h3>
This practice is essential to meet the SDG Goals. It can be defined as &ndash;&nbsp;
<blockquote>
&ldquo;A process that helps organizations optimize their IT investments by analyzing and categorizing their applications based on business value, costs, and technical factors.&rdquo;
</blockquote>
Some of the sustainability opportunities through portfolio rationalization are&nbsp;
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Software license optimization</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Elimination and migration applications to newer technologies</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Simplification technology stack by moving workload from on-premise to cloud</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Reduced maintenance, support, and operations cost</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Virtualization optimization</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Reduction of data storage, including backup and recovery</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Reduce complexity by eliminating redundancies</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Higher energy efficiencies and lower hardware usage</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Platform standardization and next-generation architecture</li>
</ol>
<h2>Current state assessment</h2>
We need to start by understanding where we are standing and that requires us to have a proper evaluation process. I recommend using the following steps:
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/3522b9dcda0f31ec6200bc866250e0fd30e4c7c6.png?" alt="Graph on Current state assessment in sustainable IT" />
<h3>IT asset disposition (ITAD)</h3>
This practice focuses on 2 main areas. Firstly, avoid greenhouse gas emissions through responsible recycling, which includes the recycling of critical metals and minerals, and finally diversion of hazardous substances from landfills and improper dispersal. Some of the ITAD services available are:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Managed deployment</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">On or offsite data erasure and destruction</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Asset recovery</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">IT asset valuation</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">IT asset repurposing or redeployment</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Data center consolidation, migration and decommissioning</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Recycling</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Donation</li>
</ul>
The following diagram explains how the process usually takes place:
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/925f166eec958c87c8a8006c7cc69d5a7b871eff.png?" alt="diagram on IT asset disposition" />
<h3>DevSusOps</h3>
The term DevSusOps was coined by Adrian Cockcroft. It constitutes the merge of DevSec + Sustainability + Operations = DevSusOps. To be able to practice sustainable IT, we need to practice DevSecOps, site reliability engineering, and platform engineering value stream management together with sustainability in mind. We have to move from digital transformation to sustainable digital transformation.
<h2>IT enabling sustainability in business</h2>
The convergence of IT in business is very strong. Every business process is IT-enabled. Hence, IT should bring out sustainability-related information directly from the systems.
Individually, each organization can do its part, but there needs to be an ecosystem to really scale sustainability to meet the global objective.&nbsp;
This requires organizations to come together to formulate standards and specifications for sustainability. For example, the first consortium coming out of Github and Thoughtworks is Green Software Foundation (GSF) with the objective to achieve a 45% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030.
The next important aspect is data. Today we do not have enough data and thus it is a challenge to progress. Data sharing has to be more open and data has to be easily accessible to advance the progress of sustainability initiatives. An example of one such initiative is how Ecopetrol, Accenture and AWS came together to create an industry platform enabling participants to share data and create a single source of truth to optimize water management and promote the reuse of water between industries.
Technology needs to be used to create an impact, especially in sustainability. Businesses needs to partner with various technology providers and even startups to innovate and implement greater success in impact to society.&nbsp;
To make the sustainable digital transformation happen, we need the following key considerations:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Top leadership commitment and sustainability to be part of their performance management through OKRs</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Funding</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Capabilities need to be built through a process of awareness, consciousness and enablement</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Continuous innovation through continuous learning and experimentation</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Sustainability-oriented people and culture</li>
</ul>
<h2>Final thoughts</h2>
While we are going to use technology for nearly everything, we have to use technology in a sustainable manner. In summary, we can say that sustainable IT should be practiced as below:
<img src="https://illuminem.b-cdn.net/articlebody/23e52c14cb0ecf388fce6848aa5d3a478a186704.png?" alt="chart on how sustainable IT should be practiced" />
IT practitioners cannot ignore the sustainability movement. They must practice sustainable IT and enable sustainability in business.
illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability &amp; Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.

Niladri Choudhuri

Niladri Choudhuri

Greening the balance sheet: the role of chartered accountants in driving sustainability in corporate finance

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