Sustainable, profitable: Tech tools help cos minimise environmental impact

From managing waste to tracking energy use, sustainability has become part of strategy of firms

Sustainability has become table stakes and increasingly essential for enterprises to achieve market competitiveness. It’s not just about compliance anymore. It’s a strategic advantage. Businesses that integrate sustainability into their strategies often see improved operational efficiencies, reduced costs, enhanced brand reputation, and better risk management — all contributing positively to profitability. Organisations in India that embed sustainability are 90 per cent more likely to outperform their peers on profitability, according to a study by IBM Institute for Business Value.

From renewable energy to waste management, the application of technology is making a significant impact in the way we interact with the environment. Advanced sensors, drones, and satellite imaging technologies are helping organisations across sectors improve their sustainability quotient.

Power of tech

Shell, the global energy company, recently collaborated with Infosys, the Indian information technology (IT) major, to accelerate adoption of immersion cooling services for its data centres. Immersion cooling technology claims to potentially result in 30 per cent lower CO2 emissions and 48 per cent reduction in energy footprint production. Both firms are leveraging Shell’s immersion cooling fluid and Infosys’s artificial intelligence (AI) offering Topaz to create environmentally responsible data centres that can manage high computing loads with optimised hardware.

“Since 2020, Infosys has led in carbon neutrality and established our Energy Transition Practice, assisting enterprises in achieving net-zero objectives...In fiscal 2024, we saw an exponential increase in our client conversations on sustainability, increasing our engagement footprint across a vast spectrum of clients and their sustainability challenges,” says Ashiss Kumar Dash, global head – Sustainability, Services, Utilities, Resources and Energy, Infosys.

BanFast Förvaltning, the Swedish real estate management company, was looking to focus more on sustainability and boost its operational efficiency. With its existing tools and solutions, BanFast employees often struggled to find the right metrics to guide sustainability initiatives. This led to duplicate work, creating additional costs and slowing down the business.  

By implementing IBM’s Cloud-based Envizi ESG suite, BanFast leveraged AI to create a consolidated environment for sustainability reporting. The new analytics capabilities enabled BanFast to make better decisions that minimise energy consumption significantly and save costs, especially when renovating buildings. “We are predicting that with a data-driven approach, we will reduce our energy usage by 50 per cent. That’s a massive improvement that will lower the long-term costs for us, the property owners and also the tenants," says Lars Nylund, chief executive officer, BanFast.

IBM believes its Envizi ESG suite is relevant for companies in India due to the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting framework mandated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India. “This framework requires companies to report disclosures and metrics involving thousands of data points. Envizi simplifies this complex process by enabling comprehensive ESG data capture and reporting, ensuring that organizations meet stringent requirements,” says Chittaranjan Meher, country leader, IBM Sustainability Software, Business Unit, India/South Asia.

French tech major Capgemini has developed a solution that leverages AI and data technologies to help small-holder farmers increase crop yield by optimising resource utilisation, reducing waste, and promoting circular economy principles. It has also worked with an equipment manufacturing company to re-design a product that not only reduces the use of virgin material but also improves energy efficiency.

Capgemini in India has built an Energy Command Centre that helps to remotely track energy use, carbon emissions and equipment efficiency. Leveraging the power of AI and machine learning (ML), Capgemini has developed algorithms aimed at optimising energy consumption in its heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and data centre.

For the environment

“The Energy Command Centre monitors and improves building energy and asset performance across Capgemini’s campuses. Furthermore, ECC will improve critical equipment performance by using a unique analytics platform to diagnose and remedy operational faults at an early stage," says Neelam Gupta, vice-president, Group Portfolio & Sustainability CoE – India, Capgemini.

A global provider of intelligent building solutions faced a significant challenge in overcoming regulatory and energy efficient hurdles in the global HVAC markets.  Working with HCLTech, the company created HVAC systems that minimised environmental impact while meeting market demand. 

“HCLTech's technology-driven sustainability initiatives include investing in R&D for cutting-edge solutions, blending IT expertise with green technologies for carbon footprint reduction, renewables integration, and green supply chain optimisation. It also includes developing AI-powered platforms that analyse energy consumption, predict peak demand and automate energy efficiency measures across client operations,” says Hari Sadarahalli, global head, Engineering and R&D Services, HCLTech.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is helping in sustainable digital transformation of companies across sectors by addressing key ESG imperatives. It is helping enterprises build “traceability platforms” to facilitate responsible procurement of natural raw materials. 

“Apart from delivering significant savings in TCS’s own office buildings, TCS Clever Energy is helping in managing energy for an Indian retail chain with stores in multiple cities in the country,” says Sreenivasa Chakravarti, vice-president, IoT and Digital Engineering, TCS. 

Analysts believe predictive analytics, route optimisation and intelligent automation in combination with Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled sensors can drive significant reductions in resources and energy consumption, resulting in lower carbon emissions. "Real estate operators already see a drop of energy consumed between 15 per cent and 55 per cent when using AI-based IoT systems, and organisations investing in AI-based route optimisation are able to reduce thousands of tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per year,” says Anushree Verma, Director Analyst, Gartner.