Sustainability is a growing concern for organizations across the globe. Whether driven by regulatory pressures, demands from consumers or investors, or a desire to achieve operational and cost efficiencies, many organizations are seeking ways to make their global operations more environmentally sustainable.
Facing rising sustainability pressures, this large consultancy organization identified a significant opportunity to enhance energy efficiency across its global operations. But with a workforce of over 700,000 employees worldwide, driving meaningful and long-term sustainability required not only operational changes but also a shift in employee behaviour.
Read on to discover how this global consulting firm achieved an 11% reduction in overall power consumption and an 11.2% reduction in CO₂ emissions by taking a creative approach to driving sustainable IT approaches at scale.
The Problem
With over 700,000 employees, the scale of operations presented both a risk and an opportunity in terms of the organizations environmental impact. A single user’s digital behavior may not have much of an environmental impact, but when multiplied by a factor of 700,000, that impact quickly becomes considerable.
Issues such as inefficient power plans and inadequate screen timeout settings were leading to unnecessary energy consumption across multiple regions. Recognizing that technology alone wouldn’t drive meaningful change, the organization understood that without educating employees on the environmental consequences of these everyday practices, the long-term success of its sustainability initiatives would be at risk.
The Approach
The team’s first priority was to identify where inefficiencies regularly occurred across its global workforce. To address this, they implemented the Sustainable IT Library Pack using Nexthink’s out-of-the-box content packs and integrations. Once integrated, data began flowing into a pre-configured live dashboard, delivering actionable insights that pinpointed sources of inefficient energy usage across specific regions. Armed with these insights, the IT team optimized power plans and screen timeout settings, reducing unnecessary energy consumption in targeted areas.
Following this success, they extended their strategy beyond technical fixes, aiming to drive lasting behavioral change in their employee user base to cement sustainability wins. To drive this lasting change, they launched a Green IT Quiz to assess employees’ understanding of environmentally responsible IT practices. The results revealed a significant gap in awareness, with fewer than 10% of participants answering the quiz correctly or even partially correctly.
Building on these insights, the next phase of the campaign focused on influencing everyday user behavior that directly impacted power consumption. With Nexthink’s employee engagement campaigns, the organization launched awareness initiatives looking at day to day green IT best practices through interesting and engaging use cases, to target issues including:
- Deleting unused emails
- Shutting down PCs and monitors during inactivity
- Delaying device replacement
The Impact: 100 MWh Saved Weekly
By leveraging these data-driven insights and targeted optimizations, this consulting organization achieved substantial energy savings across their global operations – cutting 100MWh weekly from their energy usage. This equated to an 11% reduction in overall power consumption, and an 11.2% reduction in CO₂ emissions. Annually, these savings are equivalent to the energy needs of more than 500 average U.S. households.
By combining data-driven insights to identify key areas of focus with targeted employee engagement campaigns, the organization successfully fostered a culture of sustainability, ensuring their sustainability outcomes will grow faster and be sustained for longer.