Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 62 | Page 56

FEATURE : SUSTAINABILITY

REGIONS SUCH AS THE NORDICS ARE IN A UNIQUE POSITION TO OFFER A SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE DUE TO THEIR USE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY AND LONGSTANDING GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES .

These soaring energy prices will have a real lasting impact on the sustainability agenda . While businesses may feel unaffected right now due to their ability to bulk buy or hedge against rising energy prices , the reality is that this is not a short-term problem .
Sustainability is an issue that our generation and future generations will have to continually manage – it ’ s clear that the UK and Europe need to change their mindset , to be clearer and more aggressive in their actions towards moving away from fossil fuels to avoid being – quite literally – priced out of the market .
Regions such as the Nordics are in a unique position to offer a sustainable infrastructure due to their use of renewable energy and longstanding government initiatives that aim to better protect the planet . To meet today ’ s data processing demands , the solution must be centred on these regions that can offer renewable energy sources cost efficiently while also wasting less energy on cooling , as the Nordics do already .
One of the biggest questions asked repeatedly today is whose responsibility is sustainability – individuals , business or government ?
As it ’ s been said , there is no Planet B and so we must all play our part in helping to future-proof our Earth . Having said that , we also need to understand that some have bigger roles to play where real differences can be made and seen . For example , businesses are wholly responsible for re-evaluating their business and IT operations to understand where savings can be made in light of these soaring prices and what the easiest course of action will be . While it can be difficult to move physical operations such as people and factories , migrating IT operations to sites that have sustainable infrastructures in place is a much more viable option to counter these rising costs .
I hope that this is the much-needed catalyst to drive more sustainable data and IT practices across global business and government today . Sustainability needs to be prioritised by both our governments and businesses – unfortunately the growing threat of climate change hasn ’ t been enough to make
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