Sustainability may have us looking to the future, but change happens now. There are few topics we’re seeing rising to the top of conversations and agendas in the same way as sustainability. Whether to meet regulatory requirements, drive corporate social responsibility, or uphold personal commitments and values, the focus on sustainability is strong. A recent survey by Citrix showed that almost three quarters of organizations of all sizes rank sustainability as a medium or high priority. This is true not just for the customers that we serve, but for the organizations we partner with like Google Cloud.

Citrix and Google for years have provided solutions and integrations that enable employees to do their very best work. From our recent announcement of being a Chrome Enterprise Recommended partner to the ability to leverage Citrix Machine Creation Services (MCS) on Google Cloud Platform, we continue to evolve together by not just bringing the best experience to our customers, but by also standing strong on our shared responsibility when it comes to IT sustainably around the world.

In this fast-moving area, it can be difficult to know what to do and where to start, how to measure progress, and how to truly get the organization behind sustainability. How can organizations take meaningful action on sustainability, and what impact IT can have?

In 2020, when the pandemic forced us to change the way we work, early reports showed reduced carbon emissions. Across Europe, commuting is 27 percent of all miles travelled — less commuting meant less pollution. This was a forced change but was much smoother for organizations with technology in place to support remote working, like cloud infrastructure.

A recent study conducted from Purdue University, Yale University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows that leaving your camera off during a web call can reduce carbon, water and land footprints by 96 percent. The energy saved here is not only a good excuse to keep cameras off, it’s also an example of how small actions can make a difference. As the way we work changes, new ways to address sustainability will emerge.

At Citrix, we’ve been wondering how our organisation fits in to this new way of living, and the same might be true for your organization. Our use of technology has raised tough questions about our role in — and our responsibility for — the future of work and the world.

Here are some tips for supporting sustainability in your organization:

  • Make sure you comply with your industry’s sustainability standards. Then, examine the business case for going further. You might find that a move from an on-prem datacenter to a cloud solution or investing in endpoints that use less energy, among other initiatives, make sense both financially and for sustainability.
  • A sustainable image must be backed up by a sustainable core. The fact is, successful sustainability starts behind closed doors. Consider your IT and how it can support by:
    • Lowering energy consumption
    • Embracing carbon-zero cloud computing
    • Keeping devices in use longer
    • Enabling remote working solutions
  • Most employees already believe their organization is taking sustainability seriously, but engaging their support is essential. Giving employees tools they need to be a part of the change is a good start. That includes solutions for remote working and lower-energy devices.

Many organizations are well on their way with sustainability. Join us for a webinar on Wednesday, February 10, and hear from Kingston & Sutton Council about how they, with the help of consultancy Px3, Google, and Citrix have been able to meet sustainability requirements, demonstrate how IT is critical in this space, save on energy, and put themselves in a great position to offer flexible working, fast, when the pandemic changed the way we all have to work!