in Mid-Sized Enterprises
IT infrastructure is often overlooked in sustainability planning.
Servers run 24/7.
Devices are replaced too often.
Cloud environments are left running idle.
These silent habits build up energy bills and carbon emissions without most teams even realising it.
For mid-sized enterprises aiming to reduce their carbon footprint, green IT initiatives are a practical way to align daily operations with environmental responsibility. You don’t need sweeping overhauls or complex frameworks to start seeing results.
What you need is a plan.
This article outlines practical steps to help IT and sustainability teams reduce carbon emissions, trim waste, and improve energy efficiency, while finding real cost savings along the way.
Smart Cloud Usage: Cut Waste (Without Cutting Performance)
Cloud services can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, they reduce the need for physical infrastructure. On the other, they can silently burn through energy and budget if poorly managed.
To reduce your carbon footprint through cloud usage, focus on optimisation, not expansion.
Key ESG Compliance Requirements
- Shut down unused resources: Many businesses run cloud environments 24/7, even when they’re not needed. Use auto-scheduling to power down non-production systems outside business hours.
- Right-size your workloads: Review whether your current virtual machines and services are over-provisioned. Downsizing or switching to burstable instances can save energy and cost.
- Use greener data regions: Major cloud providers publish sustainability data. Choose regions powered by renewable energy sources to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
- Consolidate storage: Old backup snapshots and unused storage buckets increase energy use. Set policies to clean up redundant files.
Why It Matters:
- Reduces energy consumption at the data center level
- Supports your company’s clean energy and environmental sustainability targets
- Unlocks cost savings through more efficient resource management
By treating cloud as a utility (not a dumping ground) you gain better control over both emissions and spend.
Working through the cloud is an ideal way to both reduce your carbon footprint and save money: Cloud Cost Management: 5 Ways to Reduce Cloud Spend
Responsible E-Waste Management: Reduce What Ends Up in Landfill
Most electronic devices don’t die of old age; they’re replaced too early. That creates a steady stream of e-waste, and with it, a growing carbon footprint. Every discarded laptop, switch, or monitor adds to environmental impact and adds cost when replacements arrive.
Responsible e-waste management isn’t just about recycling. It’s about rethinking how you manage devices throughout their lifecycle.
Steps You Can Take
- Extend device lifespan: Most devices are built to last longer than they’re used. With regular updates, remote monitoring, and basic maintenance, the life of laptops and workstations can be extended by 1–2 years.
- Repair, don’t replace: Create a process for assessing repair options before defaulting to new purchases.
- Set up a buyback or donation program: Work with providers who offer certified asset recovery or repurposing programs.
- Track your assets: Use simple asset management tools to keep visibility on devices, warranties, and usage. This helps avoid unnecessary procurement.
Mid-sized enterprises that reduce electronic waste don’t just show environmental responsibility. They also reduce hardware costs and make smarter procurement decisions.
When reconfiguring your tech or work spaces for better sustainable practices, don’t forget to update your cyber security measures: How to Develop a Cyber Security Roadmap and Build Resilience
Energy-Efficient Infrastructure: Save Power Without Sacrificing Uptime
Servers, switches, and on-site systems can be major contributors to your energy bill, and your carbon footprint. Even when workloads are moved to the cloud, there are still devices running on-site that quietly draw power day and night.
Energy-efficient IT infrastructure means making your existing environment work smarter.
Energy Savings Tactics
- Virtualise your servers: If you still run physical servers, consolidate workloads through virtualisation to reduce hardware and power usage.
- Enable power-saving settings: Switch off idle machines, use BIOS-level settings to manage energy draw, and enforce automatic sleep modes across the device fleet.
- Install smart energy monitoring: Use tools that provide live data on your infrastructure’s energy usage. This makes it easier to spot inefficiencies and take action.
- Maintain your equipment: Dusty vents, clogged filters, and overheating devices can all contribute to unnecessary power usage.
Why It Matters
- Drives energy savings across the business, especially in offices and branches
- Cuts down on fossil fuel-based electricity use
- Creates a measurable reduction in carbon dioxide emissions
For organisations asking, how can we reduce our carbon footprint while keeping performance strong?, optimising energy use is one of the most straightforward places to start.
Sustainable Transport for IT Operations: Every Kilometre Counts
The carbon footprint of your IT team isn’t just about devices and data centers. Travel—especially for support, maintenance, or procurement—adds up quickly.
Even small shifts in transport planning can help reduce your carbon emissions while keeping your team mobile.
Practical Moves to Make
- Switch to electric vehicles (EVs): If your team uses fleet cars for site visits or deliveries, prioritise EVs for future purchases or leases.
- Promote remote-first support: Resolve more IT issues remotely using tools for device management, monitoring, and collaboration.
- Encourage public transport and carpooling: Provide incentives for tech staff who commute using low-emission transport options.
- Group site visits strategically: Combine onsite work into fewer, planned trips to cut down unnecessary travel.
Why It Matters
- Reduces reliance on fossil fuel-based travel
- Helps answer the question, how can we reduce our carbon footprint? at the operations level
- Cuts travel costs while supporting clean energy targets
Mid-sized organisations don’t need a large fleet to make a difference. Just reducing unnecessary trips can mean fewer emissions and fewer expenses.
Remote work and hybrid work environments are also helping to reduce carbon footprints: Hybrid Work Best Practices: Tech and Tips
Track Progress with ESG and Carbon Data Tools
If you’re not measuring it, you’re guessing. And guessing doesn’t hold up in ESG reporting, or board meetings.
Using a sustainability platform to track your environmental performance allows IT and sustainability teams to collaborate with clarity. Good data leads to better decisions.
Improve Visibility
- Automate ESG data collection: Use tools that integrate with your IT systems to gather energy usage, cloud emissions, and hardware lifecycle data.
- Set clear carbon goals: Whether it’s to reduce your carbon footprint by a percentage or eliminate waste from a key site, make targets visible and specific.
- Use clean, standardised reporting: Align with frameworks like GRI or TCFD to ensure your metrics meet industry standards.
- Report progress regularly: Create dashboards for internal stakeholders and short-form summaries for leadership and external comms.
Why It Matters
- Supports transparency and accountability
- Keeps IT aligned with broader environmental sustainability goals
- Strengthens trust with clients, partners, and investors
Tools obviously don’t solve sustainability, but they do make it easier to act on facts instead of assumptions.
Start Simple: Reduce Carbon to Cut Costs
Green IT isn’t about big slogans. It’s about smart choices—turning off what’s not needed, using what you already have more efficiently, and reducing energy and materials waste wherever you can.
Every mid-sized business can take action. Whether your goal is cost savings, compliance, or simply doing the right thing, Green IT initiatives are a practical way to reduce your carbon footprint and build a more responsible operation.
Want help identifying where your IT environment could be significantly reducing emissions and spend? Talk to Planet6.
We offer tailored guidance, audits, and technology planning to help you reduce your carbon footprint and improve energy efficiency plan without losing performance or flexibility.
How to Reduce Carbon Footprint? Frequently Asked Questions
Green IT initiatives are practices that reduce carbon emissions from technology. They include efficient cloud use, e-waste reduction, and energy savings.
Use ESG tools to track energy use, device lifecycles, and cloud emissions. Standardised reports provide clear metrics for carbon impact.
Start with powering down idle systems, right-sizing cloud workloads, and extending the life of electronic devices. These deliver quick cost and carbon savings.