How Businesses Can Achieve Sustainable Digital Transformation
Sustainability is at the forefront of everyone’s minds. While we tend to focus on obvious sustainable changes like renewable energy and waste reduction, businesses also need to focus on achieving sustainable digital transformations, as well.
Sustainable transformations are designed to work for the planet and humanity equally. In today’s tech-forward world, recognizing and implementing the main pillars of sustainable digital transformation is essential for the future.
Let’s take a closer look at some of those pillars, including how your business can harness new technology, design for circularity, and be mindful of your digital footprints. You might be surprised to learn how much of an impact that footprint can make, and how changing your tech efforts will carry you into a greener future.
Measuring Goals and Achievements
Before you even begin transforming your technology for a more sustainable future, it’s essential to determine where you want to go with it. Consider using sustainable software solutions to help you collect data, keep track of your environmental impact, and make it easier for your remote workers to stay in constant communication with the rest of your business.
Technology, in general, has a lot to offer when it comes to making a sustainable shift. Utilizing it to your advantage will make it easier to set goals, monitor your progress, and continue to make changes as needed. You can collect data in real-time and analyze it instantly to see what you’re doing well and to determine what might need to change.
Today’s consumers are more likely to trust businesses with sustainable initiatives, so if you’re going to go through a sustainable digital transformation, don’t be afraid to market it. Consider rebranding yourself as you work toward sustainable achievements. Create a new company logo, utilize web banners, and take advantage of social graphics to engage with your audience and let them know you’re not just offering lip service when it comes to your sustainability efforts.
Marketing yourself also establishes accountability with your audience and within your company culture. If you want to build a sustainable business by undergoing a digital transformation, that effort needs to come from the top and work its way down throughout every member of the company. Consumers and potential recruits will be quick to let you know (and call you out) when you aren’t living up to your own sustainability standards.
Mindfully Harnessing Technology
It’s nearly impossible to avoid technology at this point, but it’s important to harness the right kind of tech for your business, so you can be mindful of how you utilize it. You can start by utilizing systems and interfaces that optimize behavior, focus on using less energy and resources, and promote well-being. One of the best ways to mindfully harness this kind of tech is to focus on network management.
Network management helps businesses regulate network resources more effectively. The five main types of network management are:
- Performance management
- Fault management
- Configuration management
- Accounting management
- Security management
By combining these areas, you can promote more mindful and intentional technology use in the workplace. With the right management techniques, you can encourage employees to make healthy choices for themselves and the environment. You can implement apps that monitor physical and mental well-being, and collect real-time data regarding your carbon footprint. When you choose to be mindful of your programming and have someone at the helm monitoring your tech, it’s easy to strike a healthy balance between helping the planet and fostering a healthy work environment.
Building a Digital Infrastructure
There are plenty of benefits when it comes to using tech to go green. One of the best ways to maintain full control over your digital transformation efforts is to build your own digital infrastructure. Focus on unifying tools that help to eliminate the need for multiple enterprise systems. A sustainable infrastructure should focus on making energy and resource distribution more eco-friendly while reducing expenses.
It’s a good rule of thumb to design for circularity when putting a system in place. Consider how you can reduce e-waste and energy consumption. Foster an environment that promotes connectivity even if you have employees all over the world. Regenerative thinking should always be at the forefront of your digital transformation plan, so don’t be afraid to try out different forms of tech to strike a healthy balance between digital advancements and their environmental cost.
Conclusion
Things like AI, machine learning, and real-time data collection can all be utilized to “greenify” your business, but only if they’re used correctly. Make sure someone on your team knows how to continuously update your tech to help it evolve as needed without relying on additional resources or energy.
It’s possible to achieve a sustainable digital transformation at any time. Whether you take baby steps to keep from overwhelming yourself or your business undergoes a complete brand overhaul, focusing on sustainability in every aspect of your company will not only improve your image, but it will foster an internal company culture you can be proud of.
