IBM announces 21 sustainability goals

IBM is one of the latest data center companies to commit itself to net-zero GHG emissions by 2030. In its most recent Environmental Report, the company set out twenty-one environmental sustainability goals and also outlined its involvement with the European Green Digital Coalition.

As a founding member of the European Green Digital Coalition, the tech giant pledged to continue developing digital technologies and services that are more energy and material efficient. It also pledges to develop methods and tools to measure the impact of these green digital technologies and co-create recommendations for the green digital transformation of different sectors.

Some of the goals the company has committed to include:

Procuring 75% of the electricity, it consumes worldwide from renewable sources by 2025 and 90% by 2030
Reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 65% by 2025
Improving average data center cooling efficiency 20% by 2025
Reducing water withdrawals in high or extremely high water-stressed regions
Diverting 90% (by weight) of its total non-hazardous waste from landfill and incineration by 2025 through reuse, recycling, composting, and waste-to-energy processes
Require all first-tier suppliers to maintain their own environmental management system and set goals regarding energy management, GHG emissions reduction, and waste
management; and publicly disclose progress

In the report, Wayne S. Balta, IBM’s chief sustainability officer, wrote: “We have always considered environmental leadership to be a long-term strategic imperative regardless of short-term business and economic cycles, and regardless of whether the topic is currently popular or not,”

Adding: “After all, it’s relatively easy to go green when so many are watching what a company does. But genuine leadership also involves what a company does when virtually no one is watching. You can depend upon IBM for an unwavering commitment, through thick and thin, substantiated by decades of action and results.