Greening of the cloud is happening at pace, shifting computing en masse to remote datacentres powered by renewables. However, energy consumption is just one part of the picture. In the lead up to COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, later this year in Glasgow, attention is being directed at the cloud’s ability to drive greater sustainability in supply chains.
The focus is on data and lots of it. When it’s organised and analysed on the cloud, via a single, uniform platform, organisations can start to reconfigure how they do business in a more environmentally friendly way. This can be achieved by driving efficiencies, fine-tuning logistics and transport routes, as well as by using natural resources.
“Sustainable supply chains aren’t driven by technology, they’re enabled by technology,” explains Mark Griffiths, global head of climate business at WWF. “Cloud-based technologies enable near real-time visibility, as well as greater accountability.”