We can help your organization to meet its ESG commitments. Using our industry knowledge to sidestep the greenwash, we help you select sustainable solutions and develop architecture with the flexibility to meet more demanding future requirements.
ESG is a major factor in corporate management, especially in the EU, where regulations like CSRD and CSDDD require tangible action and detailed reporting. The reporting requirement extends to non-EU organizations operating in Europe.
We have a tiny carbon footprint and excellent social and governance credentials. We maintain EcoVadis accreditation and aim to go fully carbon neutral.
With much mission-critical architecture moving to the cloud, there is a focus on the efficiency of data centers. Some offerings are more closely aligned to core cloud concepts than others. With a distributed management layer in place, the most energy efficient computing power can be prioritized, and the service provision can be adjusted to meet real-time demand rather than being a binary all or nothing service.
The carbon intensity of electricity varies by geography based on power generation sources and the level of cooling required. It is important to establish whether the SaaS provider prioritizes running their services in low-carbon intensity regions when latency allows. What percentage of the energy used by the underlying (Scope 3) cloud provider and the SaaS vendor’s own operations comes from renewable sources? Is heat generated by the data center used to provide downstream energy?
Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)
Indicates how much energy is used to run the data center as a proportion of total facility costs. Some key factors are overlooked, but it is good for measuring continuous single-site improvement.
Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE)
Assesses the supplier’s/cloud provider’s strategies for water conservation and management, especially in water-stressed regions.
Some Relevant Certification Examples
ESG: EcoVadis, Integrity Next
Environmental: ISO 14001, ISO 50001
Data Center: ANSI/TIA-942-C, Uptime Institute
Building: LEED, BREEAM.
Green Code reduces compute cycles and energy consumption. This involves techniques like autoscaling and right-sizing to ensure only the required resources are used.
Ethical Disposal Does the cloud provider or SaaS vendor have a program for responsible disposal, refurbishment, or recycling of end-of-life IT equipment? JP Reis works with partner companies that extract reusable materials, including all rare earth and precious metals, from electronic waste.
Much of the focus is on Sustainability, but Social and Governance factors can’t be overlooked.
Auditing social factors for SaaS providers means treating vendors as human organizations rather than faceless services. Key factors to assess are the same as for any company with respect to the selection and treatment of staff. This means Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) metrics in all departments at all levels. Fair wages, benefits and a focus on employee well-being.
The service’s Data Security and Privacy should comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Robust data security measures should be in place, including certifications like ISO 27001 and clear protocols for handling breaches. Digital accessibility and inclusion should ensure tools don’t create barriers for minority user groups.
Emerging frameworks like ISO 42001 can address Ethics and bias issues for AI-driven SaaS tools, and there must be transparency on how user data is used for training models.
In the ESG context, the Governance requirement is increasingly met by upstream companies expecting vendors to hold certifications from providers such as EcoVadis or Integrity Next. This requires accurate reporting on issues like training, carbon emissions, net zero ambitions and workforce demographics.
The general thrust is towards transparent, ethical, and accountable behaviour with clear public reporting on key issues. The company should be well-run and resilient, with appropriate board representation and career pathways.
All of this holds true for technology providers. There is also the extra dimension of service resilience. Governance in this context may drift into the technology space with regulations like DORA (EU), SS1/21 (UK) and cybersecurity frameworks like those from FFIEC and NIST in the USA.
In the era of ESG, companies need to drive sustainability through their supply chains with [...]
Our data scientists have created an AI surveillance solution for Bloomberg’s IM service, Instant Bloomberg [...]
