Simply as digital transformation required each firm to turn into a expertise firm, now each enterprise must act quick to turn into sustainable. And, as soon as once more, expertise has a starring position to play on this evolution.
It’s a actuality that’s confirmed by Accenture’s newest sustainable expertise survey, which pulls from enter supplied by 560 corporations with revenues above US$1 billion throughout the globe. Each single respondent ranked expertise as vital for reaching their sustainability objectives.
Digging deeper, we see why expertise is transferring entrance and heart on the sustainability agenda. Corporations that undertake sustainable tech to a big extent obtain 4% greater environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores from Arabesque S-Ray (a worldwide specialist in measuring ESG metrics). And this may elevate their general ESG rating by 11%.
Tech-powered sustainability isn’t simply good — it’s good enterprise, too. Accenture’s evaluation reveals that corporations with persistently excessive ESG efficiency generate 2.6x extra worth for shareholders than medium ESG performers.
There’s clearly lots to be gained from a holistic sustainable expertise technique. However whereas most companies are conscious of the advantages, they’re nonetheless a great distance off from reaching them. The truth is, solely 7% of corporations have totally built-in their expertise and sustainability methods.
What’s Holding Organizations Again?
Some corporations are nonetheless struggling to determine the ESG influence of their current applied sciences, and easy methods to enhance it. Total, there are a number of frequent challenges that corporations face in transferring their sustainable expertise methods from ambition to actuality:
- Lack of options and requirements: 40% of executives surveyed consider that the best options are usually not accessible or not mature sufficient, together with availability of the best expertise to steer these initiatives
- Complexity: Practically 33% are fighting complexity of options or with making their legacy techniques sustainable
- Lack of know-how: Round 20% are usually not conscious of the unintended penalties of expertise or whether or not the expertise they use is sustainable
One other large barrier: CIOs don’t at all times have a seat on the desk on sustainability choices. Though expertise is changing into core to executives’ sustainability agendas, the position of most CIOs has not advanced in step with this shift. Solely 49% are on the management staff setting sustainability objectives, and simply 45% are assessed on reaching these objectives.
Three Keys to a Sustainable Tech Technique
To really understand worth, organizations want to shut the hole between their sustainability and expertise methods — and CIOs have a vital position to play in driving this shift. They will help gas each enterprise development and ESG efficiency with an built-in sustainable expertise technique that’s constructed round three key components:
- Sustainability by tech: utilizing expertise innovation to allow sustainability initiatives
- Sustainability in tech: measuring the ESG impacts of expertise, and dealing to make sure it’s designed, developed, and deployed sustainably
- Sustainability at scale: participating the complete ecosystem of companies, non-profits, and authorities organizations to make an influence past the corporate and the world over
Rating Our Respondents
As a part of its report, Accenture developed a sustainable expertise index, which ranks efficiency towards these three components on a scale of 0-1. Apparently, it revealed a “crowded center” across the median rating of 0.45. Roughly 60% of corporations posted scores throughout the vary of 0.3 to 0.5. This means that the majority organizations nonetheless have an extended technique to go in reaching all three components of a sustainable expertise technique.
Higher Efficiency = Greater Advantages
These corporations that put within the onerous work stand to comprehend actual worth. It’s clear that the upper a enterprise scores on the sustainable expertise index, the extra probably they’re to see enhancements throughout a variety of KPIs. These embody larger monetary efficiency, innovation, buyer expertise, hiring skill, software program high quality and ESG objectives.
Round half of all respondents reported that they’re already seeing returns on their investments in sustainable expertise in at the least one in every of these classes. It’s a promising begin — nevertheless it’s value noting that only a few corporations at present acquire a number of enterprise advantages throughout the spectrum, which is the place the total worth of a sustainable expertise technique lies.
To place it extra bluntly, if the common performers on that sustainable expertise index have been to maneuver into the group of high performers, they’d be 21% extra more likely to understand at the least 5 advantages. That presents a robust case for an built-in sustainable expertise technique. And people CIOs who’re keen to rise to the problem will drive new sources of worth for his or her enterprise, whereas lighting its technique to a extra sustainable future.
