While sustainability and green IT are becoming an imperative for many organisations, yet determining the essential steps to build a sustainability strategy and decoding the regulatory framework around ESG compliance could be a challenge for organisations.

In an exclusive interaction with us, Carolyn Chin-Parry, Digital Innovation Leader, PwC Singapore shares with us her thoughts on starting steps in this direction and how tech leaders can build out their IT strategy in consonance with their ESG goals.

As per a recent report, sustainability (58%) is the topmost business priority for Singapore organisations followed by digital transformation (55%). However, only 50% Singapore organisations have a clear sustainability strategy and are acting on it. What would you suggest as critical starting steps to build a sustainability strategy?

Sustainable strategies have a few foundational elements that ensure organisations embark on the right path. A critical first step is to identify and understand the interests of key stakeholders of the organisation, from investors, to employees, customers, suppliers and even the local community. This enables better prioritisation of the organisation’s sustainability goals. Another important step is to lead with clear intent by defining your organisation’s purpose and commitment to sustainability. Beyond the vision, the sustainability strategy requires a tangible reporting metric. Defining measurable goals and key performance indicators that align with the organisation’s priorities ensures regular monitoring and transparency in your sustainability reports, building trust and credibility among stakeholders. One way our clients quantify their goals are through international metrics like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs).

When the groundwork has been laid, empowering employees to take action is paramount in bringing your sustainability strategy to fruition. Leaders can start by fostering a culture of environmental consciousness through education, training and team activities. Re-evaluating the organisation’s sustainability strategy is just as important as developing one. Continuous assessment and reviewing of metrics, gathering of feedback from stakeholders and staying on top of emerging sustainability trends and best practices is vital.

You should stay agile as an organisation in response to evolving environmental, social and economic conditions. Only then can you ensure that your sustainability strategy remains relevant and effective over time.

From an IT perspective, what are some digital-led sustainability practices to help organisations build a winning business strategy? How can an organisation’s IT strategy be aligned with the organisation’s sustainability goals?

Aligning an organisation’s IT strategy with its sustainability goals starts with a holistic approach and collaboration between various stakeholders. Corporate strategy serves as the foundation for both IT strategy and sustainability goals. By integrating sustainability principles into IT decision-making, organisations can drive positive change and benefit from the synergies between financial services reporting and sustainability reporting. Just like our clients, PwC also explores and develops tools like ESG Reporting and Maturity Assessment Tools to enable simplified compliance and reporting. So here’s what I would recommend:Start small: By evaluating seemingly mundane tasks, organisations can empower employees to embrace sustainability. For example, promoting remote work and virtual collaboration tools not only enhance work-life balance but also reduce commuting and office space requirements, contributing to reduced carbon emissions and potential cost savings. Embracing digital collaboration platforms enables organisations to attract global talent while transcending physical and geographical boundaries.

When your organisation is ready to scale: Adopting cloud computing and virtualisation technologies can optimise resource utilisation, reduce energy consumption and minimise the carbon footprint of IT infrastructure. Examples include consolidating servers and embracing virtualisation, organisations can achieve greater efficiency and scalability while reducing their environmental impact. A winning strategy is achieved by intertwining emerging technologies with a well-defined sustainability vision and goal. Technology should support and enable broader sustainability strategy, which requires strong leadership and commitment to integrating IT and sustainability teams.

Organisations can identify areas where technology can contribute to sustainability efforts by assessing current IT infrastructure. This alignment involves collaboration, a shared vision and leveraging technology for sustainability practices. By recognising the importance of all key factors, organisations can drive progress towards their sustainability objectives and make a meaningful contribution.

How can CIOs and technology leaders play a more active role in paving the way for Green IT in their respective organisations?

Sustainability should be embraced as a shared responsibility rather than a mere mandate, and technology leaders have a critical role to play in shaping corporate strategies which pave the way for Green IT. To make a tangible impact, leaders should take proactive steps and rethink how to leverage technology in a broader context.

Technology should be viewed as an enabler to support organisations in achieving their overall sustainability goals. This could involve adopting Green IT solutions and establishing measurement systems. Organisations could look into digital solutions like building Net Zero cloud dashboards, exploring greener versions of data centres, increasing cloud penetration and more.

In addition, sustainability is not the sole responsibility of CIOs – it requires collaboration and partnership across the entire organisation, involving the C-suite and beyond. Building expertise around Green IT and fostering a culture that values sustainability are also essential to drive meaningful change and make lasting impact.

An excellent way for a CIO and company leadership to foster a culture of sustainability is to change up their tone and focus points. By becoming sustainability advocates at the forefront of shaping digitally-led sustainable practices, CIOs must lead by example. Regular reminders and embodying sustainable practices will instill a sense of responsibility for the firm’s sustainable agenda amongst all.

Decoding the regulatory framework around ESG compliance could be a challenge for organisations? What are some steps you recommend in this direction?

For organisations with resource constraints, it can be challenging to take the lead in this domain. Lack of knowledge, experience or expertise can make compliance daunting and difficult to navigate. However, organisations can always seek expert guidance from external parties, aid organisations, government resources and beyond to recognise the potential of making a meaningful impact regardless of the size of the organisation. For instance, PwC regularly shares about changes in regulations through our newsletters; often, we organise roundtable discussions and decoding sessions where experts and industry leaders explore what these regulations mean for organisations.

It also is in the interest of regulators to ensure how regulations are understood. Our roundtables also feature regulators and officials who explain and delve into new regulations. This helps bring businesses and regulators together to decode any ambiguity within the new pieces of legislation.

Your one piece of advice to tech leaders starting to build out their IT strategy in consonance with their ESG goals?

To start the journey of building IT strategies, it is important to take time to understand the organisations’ overarching goals, and ensure the IT strategy is fully aligned with them. This will create a solid foundation for integrating ESG principles into technology initiatives. Along this way, it is also crucial for tech leaders to embrace lifelong learning to adapt to evolving challenges. Engaging with ESG and industry experts and utilising online learning platforms to gain insights into the best practices and emerging trends of technology innovation in the ESG domain can help make informed decisions when building IT strategy.

While the current mindset in Singapore still focuses on both as different fields, a lot of current issues are pervasive throughout both domains. For example, the dawn of quantum computing will equally affect security structures within a company as well as open up new opportunities to deal with our changing climate. Ideally, we learn from our community and keep a holistic view of all business aspects.