Organizations are making sustainability a high priority. It’s good for the planet and good for business, too.

But, how do you improve sustainability without compromising other organizational goals?

Information technology has a big role to play, both directly and indirectly.

Directly, IT departments can ensure their operations are efficient as possible by reducing energy consumption and extending the life of hardware.

Indirectly, IT can enable organizations and their people to work in more efficient, more sustainable ways — helping employees avoid the daily commute, providing more control over their workstyles, and giving them the freedom to innovate.

Let’s look at how four different organizations are using green technology to support their sustainability goals.

Cambridge Supports a Carbon-Neutral Future with a Greener Desktop

The University of Cambridge is committed to becoming carbon-neutral by 2030. When it chose a new desktop for its 150 departments and 31 colleges, it decided on an energy-efficient solution that would deliver a standard virtual desktop to thin-client endpoint devices. It chose Citrix Workspace.

As the university’s Head of Frontline Services Steve Hoensch told us: “The size of the energy saving was quite surprising. Moving people from a 450W desktop PC that’s powered 24/7 to a Raspberry Pi that’s running between 5W and 15W brings a substantial saving. We have over 15,000 desktops on site and that’s not including the students’ own laptops. We spend a huge amount on power.”

With Citrix Workspace, users can access their desktop securely from any device, anywhere making it possible to work effectively from home, avoiding the time and energy costs of their daily commute.

“We were looking at the environmental cost of people needing to drive here just to access their files, do their work, then drive home again, getting stuck in the regular rush-hour traffic,” Hoensch explained. “Enabling people to work securely and easily from home is another big factor in reducing our carbon footprint.”

Kingston and Sutton Councils Improve Energy Efficiency by One-Third

Two London councils, the Royal Borough of Kingston and Borough of Sutton, reduced their carbon footprint by the equivalent of 3,700 acres of mature forest and generated annual electricity savings of £40,000.

This was the result of a shared IT services strategy in which the councils moved from ageing desktop PCs to a virtual desktop solution using Google Workspace, Acer Chromebooks and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops.

Like Cambridge, the councils’ sustainability is boosted by significantly greater energy efficiency (from the new, thin-client Chromebooks compared to PCs) and reduced commuting.

The organization also anticipates environmental benefits from the longer life of Chromebooks compared to PCs — the new devices will have a useful life that is one year longer.

The results were audited by environmental consultancy Px3 with lead consultant Ewen Anderson confirming: “We calculated a 32 percent reduction in energy usage from the move to Citrix and Acer Chromebooks. Combined with the reduced commuting from more than 95 percent of staff working remotely, it is equivalent to the carbon offset from 3,700 acres of mature forest.”

David Grasty, Corporate Head of Digital Strategy & Portfolio for the two councils’ Digital and IT Service, told us, “The Citrix, Google and Acer solution makes us more energy efficient in our operations, it gives our staff more control over their workstyles and — with no geographic restrictions on where people can live and work — we can access a greater pool of talent.”

Neste’s Innovative IT Strategy Supports Sustainability Goals

The world’s leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel, Neste is ranked No. 4 on the Corporate Knights 2021 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations list, its fourth time in the top five and the highest-ranked energy firm.

To improve both the performance and sustainability of its IT infrastructure, the business chose a hybrid of cloud and on-premises architecture built on Google Cloud Platform, Google G Suite, and Citrix Cloud services.

The solution enables Neste to operate effectively and securely, anywhere in the world while enjoying the scalability benefits of a cloud architecture — the business uses only the cloud servers required to meet performance demands at any time.

Employees can access the apps and information they need from wherever they are, again reducing the need for commuting. As Mari Wasström, IT Service Management Lead, told us, “Citrix Cloud and Google tools enable better, more agile ways of working and are the right solutions to support Neste’s success as a global leader in renewables.”

“Neste is a pioneer in a sector that is often seen as conservative,” said Henri Grönlund, CEO, Cloud2. “Its innovative approach to IT infrastructure — combining Citrix Cloud services and Google Cloud Platform — has helped reduce its carbon footprint while also improving the application experience for staff around the world. Now, staff have an excellent user experience, greater security, and the flexibility to work wherever they need.”

Nudie Jeans Chooses Greener IT to Support Its Sustainable Denim

Nudie Jeans is internationally acclaimed for its sustainably sourced and produced denim. The business takes pride in its socially and environmentally responsible production process and operations.

It uses a hybrid architecture built on Microsoft Azure and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops to deliver both the direct and indirect benefits we outlined at the beginning. Nudie Jeans’ more sustainable IT platform contributes to its environmental goals in four ways.

First, and in line with Nudie’s extend and re-use philosophy, Citrix enables the business to extend the life of existing endpoint devices.

Second, when those PCs are eventually replaced, Nudie Jeans replaces them with lower cost, low-energy devices.

Nudie Jeans also benefits from reduced business travel. With employees able to work as effectively from home as in the office, the business has reduced commuting-related carbon costs. It also reduces business travel with video-meetings and a lower requirement for IT-related travel.

The fourth contribution is through the use of energy efficient Azure datacenters. Moving to cloud means Nudie Jeans switches to Microsoft’s environmentally-friendly datacenters. Microsoft aims to use 100% renewable energy by 2025.

Sandra Hansson, the IT and Systems Manager for Nudie Jeans Marketing, told us, “We work with partners who share our core values and who have a strong sustainability strategy. Using Citrix contributes to sustainability. Equipment has a longer life because we do not have to look at the performance so much. All of the processing happens on the Citrix servers. The fact that equipment has the longest possible life is an important part of our sustainability work.”

Benefits Beyond Sustainability

From the beginning, Citrix has created technology that allows people to get work done from anywhere on any device, while reducing energy consumption. It can dramatically decrease the greenhouse gas emissions associated with employee commuting and client computing and, with 100 million users in more than 100 countries, we believe we can deliver sustainability at scale.

Important as it is, however, sustainability shouldn’t compromise security and other priorities.

Each of these organizations gained benefits beyond energy savings: business continuity; improved flexibility and productivity; better user experience and staff empowerment; and improved security and desktop performance.

Read each organization’s full story at the links below.