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Turn mandatory “sustainable business practices” into a cash machine
(a.k.a. recoup the costs immediately)
Sustainable business practices are no longer a choice, but an obligation. Regulations such as the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) mean that more and more companies are required to account for their impact on people, the environment, and society. From January 1, this will also apply to listed SMEs.
For many organizations, this is a challenge, but it also presents an opportunity. Because there is one aspect that is often overlooked but can yield significant benefits. And it is precisely this opportunity that can make your sustainability report greener, strengthen your image, and immediately reduce your costs. The hint: it is already present in every company.
The silent polluter in your sustainability report
I won't beat around the bush: IT is a huge energy guzzler. Think of the headlines about AI data centers that consume as much energy as a medium-sized country. Those are the extreme examples. But closer to home, the situation is just as dire: virtually every IT environment operates with an abundance of waste.
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Servers that are only used at 6% capacity.
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Applications that use 10 to 100 times more computing power than necessary.
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Networks that endlessly pump data back and forth without anyone questioning whether there might be a smarter way.
And yet this is hardly reflected in sustainability reports. Even though this is precisely where significant gains can be made.
How big is that profit?
This is seriously good news. Optimization can drastically reduce energy consumption. And not just by a little bit. Often, the savings are 50% or more. In some cases, even a factor of 100 to 1,000. That means: the same applications, the same users, the same business processes, but with a fraction of the energy.
Imagine what that means for your carbon footprint. What would your sustainability report look like if you reduced the impact of your IT by a factor of 10 or more? It's not just a nice paragraph for compliance – it also strengthens your image, reduces costs, and makes your organization more agile.
What's more, optimization is not rocket science. Since the 1990s, software development has become increasingly inefficient, leaving a wealth of potential for improvement. If you know where to look, it's child's play to make big strides. In this blog, I'll show you where the biggest waste is and how you can easily eliminate it.
The forgotten legacy of slow software: why IT wastes so much energy
Until the 1980s, efficiency in IT was a given. Mainframes cost millions, and even a minicomputer could easily run into the hundreds of thousands. Every instruction a computer executed had to deliver maximum return.
In the 1990s, that picture changed dramatically. For a few thousand guilders (or the equivalent of a thousand euros), you could have a PC on your desk with more computing power than an entire company had been dependent on a decade earlier. According to Moore's Law, hardware grew in speed and capacity every two years. This made efficient programming seem less and less urgent. And the focus shifted from efficient software to development costs and time-to-market. An application that ran slowly at launch was running fine a year later on the next generation of chips.
That attitude carried on. Things started to go wrong in the 2000s. Software ate up the hardware gains. The advantages in hardware performance were swallowed up faster by inefficient software than the chips actually delivered. The result: programs that feel increasingly sluggish and slow, despite servers and laptops that are theoretically many times more powerful.
A striking example is the Python programming language. Developers love it because it allows them to build applications at lightning speed. But under the hood, it is inefficient: the same algorithm in C can run up to 75 times faster. Even modern languages such as Java or C# often deliver a 30-fold gain over Python. Add to that the ease with which inefficient algorithms are chosen, and you can understand why waste is increasing.
And then there is another harsh reality: Moore's Law has run its course. The physical limits of chip design are now truly coming into view. Just as nothing can travel faster than light, there is also a maximum limit to hardware performance. We are frighteningly close to reaching it. This makes software efficiency crucial once again – not only for performance, but also for sustainability.
The shocking CO₂ price of your workplace IT
How big is the CO₂ footprint of IT per employee? Researchers at Loughborough University investigated this and came to a striking conclusion.
In their study, they calculated that a data-intensive company with approximately 100 employees emits around 2,203 tons of CO₂ annually, purely from the processing and storage of digital data. That equates to more than 22 tons of CO₂ per employee per year—just from working with IT on a daily basis.
It is important to emphasize that this figure is a lower limit and only refers to data flows. Other factors, such as hardware production and depreciation, energy consumption for networks and data centers, and the indirect use of cloud services and AI, are not included in this calculation. The total IT footprint per employee is therefore considerably higher.
What these figures show is that the carbon footprint of IT per employee is not marginal, but substantial. For companies that take their sustainability seriously—whether or not required to do so by the CSRD—IT optimization is no longer a side issue, but a direct lever for their sustainability goals. And for profitability.
IT optimization: sustainable, faster, and cheaper
How can you make your IT truly sustainable?
Ideally, it starts at the source: with the selection and design of software. If you program and implement efficiently from day one, you can avoid unnecessary energy consumption. But the reality is that most companies have already largely set up their digital landscape. That doesn't mean you're left empty-handed. On the contrary: there is still a lot to be gained.
The key lies in insight. “To measure is to know” sounds like a cliché, but in IT this is still underutilized. By measuring exactly what an application or workplace consumes—per user, per transaction, per process—it becomes clear where energy is being wasted. And more importantly, where you can intervene to improve this. Often, these are inefficiencies that are easy to remedy, with an immediate effect on both performance and sustainability.
At Sciante, we have been doing this for more than 15 years. We help organizations optimize their IT environments, making them run faster, cost less, and leave a much smaller carbon footprint. An approach that makes sustainable business a reality: visible in your reporting, tangible in your energy bill, and noticeable to your employees.
👉 Would you like to find out how much you can save – in energy, costs, and emissions? Make a no-obligation appointment. In just one conversation, you will gain a clear understanding of where your greatest opportunities lie and how you can quickly capitalize on them.
PS. Every appointment generates money. The savings always exceed the costs—you'll see that right away during your first free appointment. So there's no risk, except continuing to waste money.