World Environment Day 2024: Look to technology to become more environmentally friendly

World Environment Day, falling on 5 June, is a good reminder that technology can be harnessed for sustainability.

Said Alex Teo, VP & MD of Southeast Asia, Siemens Digital Industries Software: "This year's World Environment Day underscores the pivotal role that we play in safeguarding our ecosystems. By embracing sustainable practices, we can contribute significantly to the restoration and resilience of our lands, combating desertification and drought.

"Embracing cutting-edge innovation in the digitalisation sphere, digital twins can be a powerful tool for monitoring and managing environmental resources more effectively. By providing real-time data and predictive analytics, digital twins enable more informed decision-making, helping to prevent issues like land degradation and water scarcity before they become critical. 

"Additionally, digital twins can simulate various land restoration strategies, predicting their outcomes without any ecological disruption. This predictive capability is invaluable in optimising restoration efforts, ensuring they are effective and sustainable."

Andrew Lim, MD for ASEAN, Kyndryl, agreed that more can be done to deploy technology for sustainability, particularly through collaboration as a use case.

"In recent years, while more organisations are publicly committing to sustainability, we have seen that only a handful have integrated sustainability into their strategies and data. There is still tremendous potential in this area, especially with the acceleration of AI technology in recent years. We firmly believe that every organisation can positively impact the environment by taking a more strategic approach to their operations in thinking beyond regulatory compliance, to look at ways to programmatically execute and advance sustainability goals with the right innovative solutions," he said.

"We have already seen how AI and data is helping to drive successful sustainability efforts by leveraging data for reporting and forecasting of resources, such as energy consumption, and detection of possible risks, like natural disasters. What we envision is a greater collaboration and sharing of environmental and sustainability data across communities and the wider ecosystem that will help us collectively progress to a more sustainable future."

Martin Dubé, VP, Public Cloud Asia Pacific & Japan at Rackspace Technology, said that World Environment Day is a good opportunity to encourage business leaders to consider sustainable IT practices. 

Concept image of the environment generated by Blue Willow.

"The tech sector has often been associated with inefficient energy consumption due to investments in outdated technology – but cloud technology is helping to change this. By leveraging cloud technology, organisations not just improve sustainability but also boost innovation and competitiveness more effectively in response to our changing global environment," he said. 

"Through cloud-native approaches, businesses can optimise resource utilisation and mitigate digital waste by rapidly scaling up the conscientious adoption of cloud solutions with a few focused tweaks. While it can be a delicate balancing act, the goal is always to optimise resources more efficiently to protect our environment."

"Integrating technology into our sustainability strategies can enhance our understanding of environmental challenges and empower us to implement more efficient and sustainable solutions, making it a cornerstone in the fight for a healthier planet," Teo concluded.

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), released its 2023 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report just before World Environment Day. The report outlined progress toward STT GDC’s ESG targets, as well as its three big-picture goals – carbon-neutral data Centre Operations by 2030; a Safe, Secure, Diverse and Inclusive Workplace; and being an ethical and responsible business.

Environmental milestones the data centre colocation service provider reported included:

• Achieved 62.5% renewable energy usage across the group in 2023.
• Achieved 45.6% reduction in carbon intensity from the 2021 baseline.
• Achieved a 9.5% reduction in average power usage effectiveness (PUE) against the 2020 baseline.
• Enhanced average water usage effectiveness (WUE) with an 18.2% year-on-year improvement in 2023, and a total 30% improvement from the 2020 baseline.

Said Bruno Lopez, President and Group CEO, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres: "We are proud of the progress achieved to date, but there is still more to be done to further embed sustainability into every aspect of our business. We look forward to continuing to set a leading example by doing what is right.”

Hashtag: #GenerationRestoration