Sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) have become hot topics in boardrooms, but when it comes to applying them in the IT space—especially within IT Service Management (ITSM)—the conversation is often shallow. One common misstep? Equating sustainability solely with carbon footprint and emissions reduction.
Let’s be clear: tracking emissions is important. But for many small to mid-sized IT organisations—especially those that are fully remote or have minimal infrastructure—the focus on carbon calculations can feel forced or even performative. In one project I was involved in, the company spent considerable effort trying to quantify its emissions. The reality? Everyone worked from home, there were no business trips, and the entire operation ran on cloud services. There simply wasn’t much to measure.
That experience was a wake-up call: sustainability in IT must go beyond carbon metrics. ESG in ITSM should be about practical, meaningful contributions to environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and ethical governance within the context of technology services.
What ESG in ITSM Can Really Look Like
Here are some real, impactful ways to integrate ESG principles into ITSM practices:
Environmental (Beyond Carbon Footprint)
- Hardware lifecycle optimisation: Prolong device lifespan, avoid unnecessary replacements, and promote repair over disposal.
- Green procurement: Choose vendors and equipment based on energy efficiency and eco-certifications.
- Sustainable cloud usage: Optimise resource consumption in cloud environments to reduce digital waste and overprovisioning.
- E-waste policies: Implement proper decommissioning, recycling, and donation practices.
Social
- Inclusive service design: Ensure digital services are accessible to users with disabilities.
- Diversity in support roles: Promote equal opportunity in hiring and team structures.
- User wellbeing focus: Avoid overloading employees with alerts, escalations, or burnout-inducing on-call duties.
- Ethical use of automation: Make sure AI and bots in ITSM don’t unintentionally disadvantage certain user groups.
Governance
- Transparent reporting: Track and report service performance and sustainability metrics honestly.
- Responsible vendor management: Hold service providers accountable for their ESG practices.
- Policy enforcement: Ensure data handling, cybersecurity, and IT practices comply with regulations and ethical standards.
- Continuous review: Regularly assess how IT operations align with evolving ESG goals.
Where ITSM Fits into the ESG Picture
Service Management plays a key role in bridging strategy and day-to-day IT operations. By embedding ESG into the core ITSM processes—from change and asset management to incident response and supplier coordination—organisations can ensure that sustainability and responsibility are not side-projects but embedded into service delivery.
ITSM tools can help by:
- Tracking and reporting energy usage, lifecycle data, and vendor compliance.
- Automating sustainability checks into workflows.
- Linking service metrics with broader ESG dashboards.
Let’s Think Bigger Than Emissions
If we want to make IT truly sustainable, we have to think beyond electricity bills and flight logs. Let’s start talking about digital equity, tech governance, ethical automation, and service design that’s as sustainable as it is reliable.
💡 Ready to bring ESG into your ITSM strategy the right way? At Northera IT Solutions, we help organisations build meaningful, responsible IT practices that go beyond the buzzwords. Let’s make sustainability practical—and powerful—for your service management environment.
