As businesses step up their sustainability strategies, reducing emissions and waste from their own technology operations will be key. Cloud computing, specifically, will be critical to these efforts, particularly as burgeoning demand for digital services is expected to place Southeast Asia at the epicentre of data centre growth globally, with a predicted 18.97% CAGR through to 2027. Yet, even as businesses transition on-premises workloads to the cloud to maximise energy efficiencies, the fact remains that data centres have a ravenous appetite for energy. This presents a growing area of opportunity for businesses to adopt a more sustainable cloud position.
Globally, sustainability has quickly risen the ranks in recent years to emerge as a primary business consideration. Particularly for the Asia Pacific (Apac) region, this shift is urgent and necessary considering the far-reaching consequences of climate inaction on one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions. Extreme climate change is estimated to potentially cost Asia 37% of its collective Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
With that, the push for organisations to improve and report on sustainability is picking up pace in the region. For instance, Singapore launched ESGenome last year, an effort to build a common disclosure tool that will make it easier for listed companies to report on their sustainability. Other countries across the region are mirroring similar commitments to moving the needle on accurate sustainability reporting. The International Data Corp (IDC) predicts half of all A-2000 companies will be able to meaningfully track and report on their carbon footprint by 2025.
