Reading time: 14 minutes · Sustainable IT expertise, SPIE
Sustainable IT: the roadmap to take control of your IT infrastructure footprint
Since 2024, the CSRD has required large companies to publish detailed reporting on their environmental impacts, including digital impacts, and the scope is gradually expanding. ESG commitments are multiplying and executive boards are asking for accountable results. For a CIO or CTO, the question is no longer "should we act on the IT carbon footprint?", but "where do we start, how do we prioritize, and how do we demonstrate measurable results?". That is precisely what a serious Sustainable IT roadmap is for.
This guide sets out a complete four-step methodology - Assess, Build, Act, Communicate - to launch a Sustainable IT approach that holds up over time. You will find the right indicators, concrete levers organised by category, the orders of magnitude worth knowing, and the pitfalls to avoid. SPIE supports organisations of all sizes through this digital ecological transition, with practical tools for action.
Sustainable IT, Green IT, IT for Green: three notions worth distinguishing
Before building a roadmap, you need to agree on the terms. The three notions coexist within sustainable digital transformation strategies, but they do not refer to the same reality. Conflating them leads to fuzzy objectives and to measuring the wrong things.
Three complementary concepts, one shared horizon
Green IT refers to reducing the environmental footprint of the information system itself. It is the "tidy your own house" approach: extending the lifespan of equipment, optimising data centres, reducing server energy consumption, and practising digital sobriety day to day.
Sustainable IT (also referred to as responsible IT) is a broader concept. It integrates environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations across all IT-related decisions. It encompasses sustainable procurement, equipment lifecycle management, data and software optimization, as well as the human dimension - such as user practices, digital sobriety, accessibility, inclusion, and well-being - alongside Green IT governance, measurement, and reporting. It serves as the strategic framework within which digital sustainability roadmaps are defined and implemented.
IT for Green reverses the perspective: it refers to using IT tools to improve the environmental performance of other corporate assets. Concrete examples include intelligent sensors that manage the energy consumption of buildings, monitoring systems that optimise industrial processes, and platforms that reduce business travel.
- Green IT: reducing the footprint of the information system itself.
- Sustainable IT / responsible IT: governing the information system according to ESG principles.
- IT for Green: using IT tools to decarbonise other business activities.
These three dimensions are complementary. An effective Sustainable IT roadmap brings them together: it reduces the footprint of the information system itself, embeds it in overall ESG governance, and mobilises IT tools to support the decarbonisation of the whole organisation.
Why reducing your IT footprint without a method is greenwashing
Many organisations announce commitments to reduce the environmental impact of their information system without having a formalised action plan. The result: scattered initiatives, overstated savings, and credibility that starts to fray as soon as stakeholders ask for evidence.
The three classic mistakes of unstructured approaches
Mistake 1 - Acting before measuring. Without a diagnostic of the existing estate, it is impossible to know the starting point or where to focus efforts. The IT carbon footprint is also distributed very unevenly across end-user equipment, data centres, and the network. Acting without measuring means optimising blindly and being unable to demonstrate any progress during ESG reviews or audits.
Mistake 2 - Confusing quick wins with strategy. Switching off screens at night, replacing printers or raising staff awareness are useful actions, but they do not amount to a Sustainable IT strategy. Such measures have a real but marginal effect on the overall footprint. Without a three-year vision, you mobilise organisational energy for a marginal result.
Mistake 3 - Substituting communication for governance. Digital sobriety cannot be achieved through an ESG report. It requires formalised commitments, indicators tracked over time, a designated Sustainable IT lead, and integration into IT decision-making processes. Without these elements, the approach is not an approach, but a narrative.
Step 1 - Assess: measure the IT carbon footprint before acting
The first step of a serious Sustainable IT roadmap is always an objective stocktake. The aim is to map the existing assets, quantify material and energy flows, and benchmark against market standards to identify the real priorities.
Life cycle assessment of the IT infrastructure
Quantifying the carbon footprint of an IT landscape goes well beyond measuring the electricity consumption of servers. A life cycle assessment (LCA) takes into account every phase from cradle to grave: equipment manufacturing, transport, use, and end-of-life. This complete view is what makes it possible to identify where impacts truly concentrate, and therefore where to act first.
In practice, the manufacturing of end-user equipment represents the dominant share of the IT carbon footprint, often greater than its energy consumption during the use phase. Ignoring this dimension means structurally underestimating your footprint and misdirecting your investments.
SPIE carries out these analyses through the Resilio platform, which is compliant with ISO 14067 on the quantification of the carbon footprint of products and services. It makes it possible to model the footprint of the IT infrastructure asset by asset - user devices, servers, network equipment - and to produce auditable results that are comparable over time and credible enough to share at ESG reviews.
For organisations just starting out, this analysis almost always reveals priorities that differ from those perceived internally. It is an uncomfortable but indispensable step: you can only steer well what you measure well.
Measuring the IT carbon footprint: what life cycle assessment adds
Measuring electricity consumption alone is not enough to capture the IT carbon footprint in full. A life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to the IT infrastructure makes it possible to quantify the sixteen indicators linked to planetary boundaries - greenhouse gases, water consumption, electricity use, abiotic resource equivalence and others - emitted at each stage: equipment manufacturing, transport, use phase and end-of-life.
This approach reveals an often-underestimated reality: for an end-user device (PC, laptop, smartphone), the manufacturing phase represents 70 to 80 percent of the total carbon footprint and concentrates the majority of environmental impacts. These observations invert the usual logic of priority actions: extending the lifespan of the estate has a far greater impact than optimising standby consumption.
For data centres, LCA highlights specific impact drivers, with the use phase typically dominating overall impacts. Key contributors include cooling systems (accounting for 30 to 40% of total electricity consumption in traditional architectures), the energy mix, and the actual utilisation rate of servers. These parameters form the basis for identifying and prioritising the most effective levers in the roadmap.
Tools such as Resilio, Boavizta, the ADEME calculators or the dedicated modules offered by cloud providers make it possible to produce a first reliable order of magnitude. To go further, support from a specialist in corporate environmental footprint analysis makes it possible to produce auditable data, compatible with CSRD requirements.
Step 2 - Build: design a bespoke Sustainable IT roadmap
Once the diagnostic is complete, the next step is to structure a responsible IT action plan that is coherent, prioritised, and grounded in the organisation’s real constraints. This is not a catalogue of generic measures, but a roadmap calibrated to your audit results, budget context, and regulatory deadlines.
The five key pillars of a Sustainable IT roadmap
A Sustainable IT roadmap is structured around five core action domains. Each encompasses specific levers and different orders of magnitude in terms of impact reduction. The combination and sequencing of these workstreams depend on the initial diagnostic.
- Strategy and governance: define a responsible IT policy at executive level, appoint focal points, set measurable objectives, and steer impact over time with verifiable indicators.
- Purchasing and procurement: embed digital ESG criteria in tenders, favour suppliers with documented environmental and social commitments, and assess products across their full life cycle.
- End-user equipment: prioritise reuse, extend hardware lifespan, and limit equipment refresh to what is strictly necessary.
- Infrastructure and data centres: optimise the energy efficiency of servers and networks, track indicators such as PUE, and favour responsible hosting.
- Digital uses and services: embed restrained day-to-day practices - email, storage, video conferencing - and integrate eco-design from the very conception of internal applications and tools.
Quick wins and longer programmes: how to prioritise across a roadmap
A well-built Green IT roadmap brings together two time horizons that complement rather than exclude one another.
Short-term horizon (0 to 12 months) - the quick wins
These are actions with high visible impact and low implementation complexity: activating standby policies, deleting redundant, obsolete and trivial data (ROT data), auditing unused software licences, revising printing policy. These actions do not transform the footprint on their own, but they create organisational momentum, deliver measurable results quickly, and generate the first savings that fund heavier workstreams.
Medium-term horizon (1 to 3 years) - the structural workstreams
These are the levers with strong potential to reduce impact: progressively replacing the hardware fleet with refurbished or sustainability certified equipment, redesigning data centre architecture, migrating to hosting with a low-carbon energy mix backed by certification or verifiable commitments, deploying a digital sobriety training programme, and embedding Sustainable IT criteria in IT procurement. These workstreams require dedicated governance, identified budgets and ongoing oversight.
Prioritisation combines three variables: potential impact on the key environmental indicators (GHG emissions, electricity consumption and others), organisational feasibility (budget, skills, dependencies), and return on investment, including the energy savings generated.
Step 3 - Act: concrete levers to reduce environmental impact
Implementation of the responsible IT action plan is organised across the five domains of the Sustainable IT diagnostic: Governance, Procurement, Projects, Uses and Commitments. Here are the main levers per domain, together with the logic behind them.
Sustainable IT governance: laying the organisational foundations
Without dedicated governance, initiatives stay scattered and tend to fade at the first shift in priorities. Sustainable IT governance is the bedrock without which none of the following actions hold up over time.
- Appoint a Sustainable IT lead within the IT function, with a formalised mission and measurable objectives.
- Create an IT and Sustainability steering committee bringing together IT, procurement, HR and the ESG leadership.
- Embed environmental KPIs in IT dashboards (electricity consumption, PUE, fleet lifespan).
- Formalise a Sustainable IT policy, communicate it, and apply it.
- Align the Sustainable IT roadmap with the company’s overall ESG strategy to avoid inconsistencies.
Sustainable IT governance turns a one-off project into a continuous improvement process. It is also what makes it possible to produce reliable data for CSRD reporting or for certifications such as recognised responsible IT labels.
Responsible procurement and equipment life cycle
Responsible procurement is one of the most effective levers for reducing the IT carbon footprint, because it acts on the manufacturing phase - the most emissions-intensive stage in the life cycle of an end-user device. Acting on procurement means acting on the dominant component of the footprint.
- Embed environmental criteria in specifications (EPEAT Gold, TCO Certified, Energy Star labels).
- Extend the lifespan of hardware by at least 3 to 5 years, supported by preventive maintenance policies.
- Develop the purchase of durable and refurbished IT devices through certified channels (re-useIT, for example).
- Put in place a traceable collection and recovery procedure for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).
- Audit IT suppliers on their environmental commitments as part of a sustainable procurement approach.
For organisations subject to EU procurement requirements or to specific national rules on responsible IT procurement, some of these criteria become contractually binding. For the others, they constitute a competitive advantage in tender responses and a weighty ESG argument with investors.
Data centre and cooling optimisation
Data centres are a major component of an IT infrastructure’s environmental footprint. Cooling alone can account for 30 to 40 percent of the total electricity consumption of a conventional data centre. That makes it a substantial lever for optimisation.
- Improve PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) below 1.4 for existing sites, and below 1.2 for new builds.
- Move to free cooling or adiabatic cooling to reduce refrigeration consumption. The gains depend on the climate context and existing architecture but can be significant in temperate environments.
- Increase server virtualisation rates to reduce the number of active physical machines.
- Explore the mutualisation of server capacity across entities or sites within the group to increase utilisation rates
- Supply data centres with renewable energy through Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) or certificates of origin.
- Assess migration to specialised colocation infrastructure, where operators generally achieve better PUE thanks to higher pooled utilisation rates.
Responsible cloud and Green Ops practices
Cloud migration does not mechanically reduce the IT carbon footprint. Everything depends on the chosen provider, the deployed architecture and how resources are managed day to day. A poorly sized and lightly governed cloud can consume more than a well-optimised on-premises data centre.
In practice, a responsible cloud implies:
- Choosing providers with verifiable and published carbon commitments (carbon footprint, data centre PUE, share of renewables).
- A cloud architecture optimised to avoid systematic over-provisioning (rightsizing, auto-scaling).
- Green Ops practices: automatic shutdown of unused resources, scheduled saving policies, deletion of inactive test environments.
- Monitoring of the cloud footprint with dedicated tools (Cloud Carbon Footprint, providers’ native tooling).
- Thinking through data localisation to reduce network latency and meet sovereignty and regulatory compliance requirements (Swiss DPR, EU GDPR, Cloud Act).
IT for Green: technology in the service of building energy efficiency
IT for Green is often the most underestimated lever in Sustainable IT roadmaps. It refers to the use of digital tools to reduce the footprint of organisational assets, products and services - notably buildings buildings, which account for around 40 percent of European energy consumption.
Intelligent management solutions for tertiary and industrial buildings can reduce energy consumption by 25 to 35 percent depending on configuration, thanks to real-time monitoring, optimisation of HVAC equipment (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) and automation of usage scenarios. SPIE offers an AI-based building monitoring and energy optimisation solution that translates the IT for Green approach into measurable results on the energy bill.
This kind of approach reverses the usual logic: technology is no longer only the object of the environmental approach; it becomes an active lever. It is also a strong commercial argument in tender responses that include ESG criteria.
Digital uses and digital sobriety of staff
The “uses” dimension is often overlooked in Sustainable IT roadmaps, despite being a significant source of impact - particularly through data storage and end-user device usage, which together account for a relevant share of an organisation’s total IT footprint and a lever for internal mobilisation.
- Train staff in good digital practices: managing email, cloud storage, considered use of high-definition video conferencing.
- Implement data lifecycle management policies: an estimated 30 to 40 percent of corporate data is redundant, obsolete or trivial (rot).
- Raise awareness of the environmental stakes of IT to build a shared culture of digital sobriety, not just a list of rules.
- Embed Sustainable IT criteria in IT projects from the design phase (green by design, eco-design of digital services).
Measure the footprint of digital uses to identify the most emissions-intensive behaviours and tools.
Step 4 - Communicate and report: embedding the transition in corporate governance
A Sustainable IT approach that is not reflected in the company’s reporting does not exist in the eyes of external stakeholders. This fourth step is often overlooked, even though it underpins both the credibility of the approach and the organisation’s long-term resilience.
Reporting and CSRD integration
The European CSRD directive requires a growing number of companies to publish detailed information on their environmental footprint in a standardised sustainability report. Digital impacts, long invisible in carbon assessments, are now being integrated mainly through scope 3, driven by the CSRD and rising stakeholder expectations.
For IT teams, the task is to produce reliable data on digital greenhouse gas emissions and other digital impacts, broken down by scope (1, 2, 3), and to integrate them into the sustainability report following the ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards). This requires structured data collection systems, validated calculation methodologies, and end-to-end traceability across the IT system, covering all layers from end-user devices to networks and data centre and cloud environment.
Organisations that are ahead of the curve on CSRD for IT use their Sustainable IT roadmap as the backbone of their reporting: every action implemented produces data that directly feeds the published environmental indicators. The roadmap thereby becomes a strategic asset, not just an internal steering tool.
Responsible IT labels and sustainable transformation
Recognised responsible IT labels (such as the INR Sustainable IT Label) or equivalent reference frameworks make it possible to have the sustainable digital transformation approach validated by an independent third party. It is a strong argument with clients, investors and internal teams.
Communication towards stakeholders must meet four criteria to be credible:
- Factual: based on measured indicators, not on estimates or projections presented as achievements.
- Sequenced: showing year-on-year progression rather than a single isolated result.
- Contextual: explaining what the figures represent (for example, X tonnes of CO₂ avoided correspond to Y long-haul flight equivalents).
- Transparent about limits: not overstating the results and acknowledging the scopes not yet covered.
A documented responsible IT action plan, with tracked indicators and verifiable results, is the best protection against accusations of greenwashing. It turns an ambition into a real Sustainable IT governance. Worth noting: the EU Green Claims Directive, currently being finalised, will set the legal framework for this kind of communication. Companies that anticipate these requirements - verifiable data, explicit scopes, no vague claims - protect themselves both against greenwashing and against a growing regulatory risk.
Reference figures to calibrate your ambitions
Before setting objectives, it helps to have orders of magnitude in mind. The data below come from sector studies and from feedback on initiatives deployed by companies across Europe.
−10 to −20% reduction in the IT carbon footprint over 3 years with a complete roadmap (source: Wavestone).
−25 to −35% energy savings on buildings thanks to intelligent management solutions (IT for Green).
70 to 80% of the carbon footprint of an end-user device is generated during manufacturing, not during use.
30 to 40% of the electricity consumption of a classic data centre is absorbed by cooling.
30 to 40% of the data stored in companies is redundant, obsolete or trivial (ROT data).
KEY TAKEAWAY: These orders of magnitude serve as references to build a credible business case and to set objectives that are ambitious yet achievable. They also show that the largest gains - end-user device footprint, data centre cooling, useless data - are not where companies spontaneously concentrate their efforts.
What SPIE offers for your Sustainable IT approach
The SPIE approach is structured around the four steps described in this guide, with concrete deliverables at each phase and a deliberately operational rather than theoretical orientation.
- Step 1 - Assess: Sustainable IT maturity diagnostic across the five domains (Governance, Procurement, Projects, Uses, Commitments) and a life cycle assessment of the IT infrastructure - to produce a factual stocktake, a maturity score and documented action priorities.
- Step 2 - Build: a roadmap derived directly from the diagnostic and LCA results, with an impact estimate for each lever and alignment with relevant labelling or certification deadlines.
- Step 3 - Act: deployment of the identified workstreams: extending and refurbishing the estate (re-useIT channel), data centre optimisation, building energy management with IT4Green, support on digital sobriety.
- Step 4 - Communicate: awareness-raising for staff and stakeholders through workshops (Digital Collage, Climate Fresk).
Typical clients are mid-sized companies and large multi-site groups, often at a turning point: either at the first structuring stage of their Sustainable IT approach, or preparing for a responsible IT label.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to build a Sustainable IT roadmap?
An initial Sustainable IT maturity diagnostic typically represents an engagement of five to ten days, achievable within a few weeks depending on the availability of the teams. The roadmap is the direct deliverable, derived from the diagnostic and LCA results. Implementation then varies according to the ambition of the workstreams selected and the complexity of the organisation.
Which workstreams are the most rewarding in the short term for an IT infrastructure?
Actions with high visible impact and low implementation complexity mainly concern:
- Deleting ROT data (redundant, obsolete or trivial data), which accounts for 30 to 40 percent of corporate storage.
- Activating standby and automatic shutdown policies on equipment.
- Auditing unused software licences and over-provisioned cloud resources.
- Raising staff awareness on the management of personal stored data (drives, mailboxes, duplicates).
These quick wins make it possible to obtain measurable results quickly, without major investment, while creating organisational momentum that supports more structural workstreams. Extending the lifespan of hardware is also a lever worth initiating quickly, even though its effects only become fully visible over two to three years.
How can I measure the carbon footprint of my IT infrastructure in concrete terms?
Measurement relies on three main data sources:
- Electricity consumption (invoices, smart meter readings, cloud provider data).
- Hardware inventory (number, age, type and location of equipment).
- Supplier data (hosting, network, telecoms).
Tools such as Resilio, Cloud Carbon Footprint or the ADEME calculators make it possible to compute emissions in CO₂ equivalent from these data. Life cycle assessment (LCA) adds the manufacturing dimension, which is often the most important for end-user devices. For an auditable and CSRD-compatible measurement, expert support is recommended from the first assessment.
Do virtualisation and cloud migration automatically reduce the IT carbon footprint?
No, not automatically. Server virtualisation reduces the number of physical machines and improves the real utilisation rate, which can reduce energy consumption by 20 to 40 percent depending on the starting point. But the gain depends on the initial virtualisation rate and on how the freed resources are managed.
Cloud migration can increase the footprint if it is not accompanied by rigorous rightsizing and the choice of a committed provider. A well-managed responsible cloud - with Green Ops practices, shutdown of inactive resources and cloud footprint monitoring - can on the other hand significantly reduce the overall footprint compared with an ageing on-premise data centre.
What are the Sustainable IT regulatory obligations in Europe in 2025-2026?
In Europe, the CSRD directive requires a growing number of companies to publish information on their digital environmental footprint in their sustainability report, in line with ESRS standards. In France, the REEN law for IT imposes specific obligations on operators and, progressively, on large companies regarding their digital footprint. In the UK, listed companies are subject to TCFD-aligned mandatory climate disclosures and progressively to UK Sustainability Reporting Standards being developed by the FRC.
Wider European requirements - including the EU Taxonomy, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), the Right to Repair and the Battery Regulation - also raise the bar on the life cycle properties of equipment. For organisations active across several regulatory areas, alignment with European standards is the most robust and durable strategy.
Your IT infrastructure deserves a roadmap built to its scale.
A complimentary mini-diagnostic and Sustainable IT roadmap is available for CIOs, CTOs and ESG leaders who wish to objectivise their situation and identify their action priorities. An initial no-commitment exchange with a SPIE expert.