[ad_1]
The tech industry is benefiting from the halo effect when it comes to sustainability.
In the past few years, nearly every major tech company has announced sustainability goals, from manufacturing shipping vessels to eliminating plastics in product packaging to achieving carbon neutrality by target dates. Amazon.com Inc., for example, was co-founded in 2019 Climate pledgeCommitment to reach net zero emissions by 2040. A few months later, Microsoft Corp. announced In the year It was aiming to become carbon negative by 2030. Six months later, Apple Inc He is committed. In the same year, 100% carbon neutral – and then go to Google announced It plans to use carbon-free energy by 2030.
But technology is not unique in these lofty climate goals. Industry leaders across sectors have made similar commitments. Morning Consult’s research shows that what makes technology stand out is that consumers in this space place a somewhat higher value on driving innovation and delivering on promise, but are more likely to view it as part of the solution rather than the sustainability of the problem.
Sustainability in Tech: Products, Data Centers, or Both?
There are two ways to look at what sustainability means for technology: the issues that consumers see and want tech to solve, and the issues that tech companies identify and decide to solve.
For consumers, the sustainability of technology has a lot to do with products, packaging and their manufacturing processes. Most people’s point of contact with the tech industry is through the physical devices they interact with every day, whether it’s a Dell laptop, Samsung phone, or Apple Watch. These themes dominated open-ended responses to the July survey, with consumers pointing to recycling products and packaging and using sustainable materials in manufacturing to define sustainability for the sector.
Showing the top 6 themes mentioned in the open responses and the overlap between themes
Survey conducted July 22-23, 2022, among a representative sample of 2,210 US adults, with an unweighted margin of error of +/-2 percentage points.
For technology companies, sustainability is largely focused on operations. Behind the consumer’s favorite devices are the “invisible” (actually huge) data centers that host cloud services that make magic possible. These huge, ambitious server farms account b They account for 1% to 1.5% of energy consumption globally, but because they are largely invisible, consumers do not identify them as an area where sustainability initiatives should be focused. Tech companies, on the other hand, are well aware of the footprint these data centers have, and therefore focus most of their sustainability efforts in this area.
Respondents were asked which of the following activities would be a priority when it comes to technology companies’ sustainability efforts, choosing up to three options.
Survey conducted July 22-23, 2022, among a representative sample of 2,210 US adults, with an unweighted margin of error of +/-2 percentage points.
So, what are tech companies saying about their sustainability initiatives, and are they aligned with public expectations?
They took 18 different initiatives and 32 real-world tech companies over the past few years to find out which people think they have the most positive environmental impact and buy from a company that has taken that action.
Aligning with consumers’ understanding of what sustainability means for technology, commitments and measures to reduce the environmental impact of product packaging and manufacturing were popular. Using MaxDiff analysis, we found that respondents rated the least positive environmental impact as “reducing waste sent to landfills,” “using only recycled materials in production and packaging,” and “eliminating plastics in packaging.” All popular covenants against others. These product-focused commitments also receive bipartisan support, a tricky task with such a polarizing topic.
Water conservation as a winning initiative
Less well known is the popularity of water conservation commitments and actions. While water issues were rarely mentioned in an unexpected survey of what technology sustainability means, respondents ranked highest in terms of positive environmental impact, “recharging more water than we use.” This is probably because of how the case is framed, reinforcing that. why It can be important that companies communicate their goals what They communicate.
Water conservation becomes important once it is given an appropriate context for people, such as water security or water use in communities. Bridging the knowledge gap between major tech companies’ real-world environmental impact and what consumers think sustainability means in this space gives tech companies an opportunity to communicate their commitments and actions, and educate consumers on why they matter.
Respondents were asked how important each of the following factors are to tech companies. Tabled below are the mean utility scores, which show the relative importance of each attribute among respondents. Showing the top 10 goals
Survey conducted July 22-23, 2022, among a representative sample of 2,210 US adults, with an unweighted margin of error of +/-2 percentage points. A utility score of 100 indicates that an action has an average probability of being considered very important to an individual respondent. A score of 200 indicates that the action is considered twice as important as average, while a score of 50 is half as important.
Do not say carbon
On the other hand, there are issues that technology companies are all talking about, but maybe not in the right way. Almost every major technology company has a carbon reduction goal. This is largely due to the inaccessibility of “carbon footprint” and other carbon-focused terms compared to concepts such as climate change, energy conservation, and renewable resources.
Our research shows that when addressing carbon emissions, addressing the issue in terms of renewable energy and other specific solutions is more impactful than talking about carbon impacts in general. Using different, more specific words, using similar ideas, such as renewable energy operations, also unites Republicans and Democrats.
Renewable energy goals in technology have bipartisan support.
Survey conducted July 22-23, 2022, among a representative sample of 2,210 US adults, with an unweighted margin of error of +/-2 percentage points. A utility score of 100 indicates that an action has an average probability of being considered very important to an individual respondent. A score of 200 indicates that the action is considered twice as important as average, while a score of 50 is half as important.
Technology companies can be an example if they have a big advantage right now
Tech companies are uniquely — and rather fortunately — seen as part of the sustainability solution and taking steps to make their own operations more environmentally friendly. As consumers, and especially young people, see sustainability as increasingly important and put pressure on companies to act, the challenge facing tech companies is to capture this moment before it fades.
There is no guarantee that technology companies will be good on their promises. With high expectations comes high visibility for the sector. For example, cloud service providers have been rumored to be offering cloud services to oil and gas companies seeking to drive their business greener, or to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions. With this in mind, technology companies need to know what they can do to bring sustainability not only to their own operations, but also to other industries.
Now, tech companies must make good on their promises and become role models for other industries, or they must violate the trust consumers place in them.
[ad_2]
Source link
