Sustainability used to sit at the edge of IT conversations. It belonged to the facilities team, the annual report or a corporate responsibility page that IT rarely read. That is no longer the case. Boards set ESG targets, customers ask about emissions in tender questionnaires, investors expect credible reporting and regulators are tightening disclosure rules. Sooner or later, all of that lands on IT.
The challenge for most IT teams is not whether sustainability matters. It is how to turn a broad corporate commitment into decisions people can actually make on a Tuesday afternoon: which supplier to choose, when to refresh hardware, how to design a new service. That is where service management has a lot to offer.
Why IT sits at the centre of ESG
ESG covers environmental, social and governance concerns, and digital technology touches all three.
- Environmental. Data centres, cloud services, networks and end-user devices all consume energy and materials. Refresh cycles, e-waste and the energy profile of hosting choices add up quickly.
- Social. Accessibility, digital inclusion, working conditions in the supply chain and the responsible use of data and AI are all shaped by IT decisions.
- Governance. Reporting on any ESG target depends on reliable data, and that data usually comes from systems IT designs and runs.
It also helps to separate two ideas. One is making IT itself more sustainable, which is about your own footprint. The other is using digital services to help the wider organisation become more sustainable, from smarter building management to remote working that cuts travel. A credible strategy needs both.
Sustainability by design, not as an add-on
The most important shift in recent years is that sustainability has moved from a specialist topic to a design consideration. ITIL Version 5 reflects this directly. Rather than treating sustainability as something to bolt on after a service is live, it asks organisations to consider the long-term environmental, social and operational effects of digital products and services as they are designed and delivered.
In practice, that means sustainability questions belong in the same places as cost, risk and user experience: in investment decisions, architecture reviews, supplier selection and change assessments. When those questions are asked early, sustainable options are often cheaper and simpler. When they are asked late, they tend to feel like extra cost and extra paperwork.
Putting it into practice
The organisations making real progress rarely start with a grand programme. They usually begin with a few practical steps:
- Measure what you can. Start with energy use for hosting and devices, hardware lifecycles and supplier data. Imperfect data is better than none, as long as you are honest about its limits.
- Build sustainability into decisions you already make. Add sustainability criteria to procurement, architecture reviews and change assessments, rather than creating a separate approval layer.
- Extend asset lifecycles where it makes sense. Refurbishing, redeploying and responsibly disposing of hardware often saves money as well as reducing environmental impact.
- Ask more of suppliers. Cloud providers and hardware vendors increasingly publish emissions and sourcing data. Use it, and make it part of regular supplier reviews.
- Report in a way the business understands. Link IT’s contribution to the organisation’s ESG targets, so the effort is visible and valued.
We looked at the service management side of this in more detail in an earlier article on integrating ESG into service management practices.
Building on solid foundations
None of this thinking appeared overnight. When PeopleCert expanded the ITIL 4 scheme with extension modules, sustainability was one of the first two topics chosen. The ITIL 4 Specialist: Sustainability in Digital & IT module brought together a core guidance book, an accredited course and a certification, and it gave many practitioners their first structured way to talk about sustainability in terms of value, costs, risks and service outcomes.
That guidance connected ESG ideas to familiar service management concepts such as value co-creation, the guiding principles and continual improvement, and it showed how to weigh trade-offs and build a business case. Those skills carry straight across to ITIL Version 5. For teams who already worked through it, the newer guidance is a natural next step rather than a fresh start. For teams new to the subject, the core message is the same: sustainability works best when it is part of how services are designed and run, not a separate initiative.
How we approach it
At Northera, sustainability is part of how we think about service management, not a separate offering. Our founder holds the ITIL 4 Specialist: Sustainability in Digital & IT certification alongside the ITIL 4 Master designation, and has already moved on to ITIL Version 5. We bring that perspective into the adoption and improvement work we do with clients, helping them make sustainable choices part of everyday decisions.
Want to turn your ESG commitments into something your IT teams can act on? Book a free scoping call and we will help you find a practical starting point.
