Effective strategies for responsible IT

Sustainability is being discussed more frequently in the boardrooms of today’s large organisations in response to demands for a more responsible approach to business by clients, shareholders, employees, the general public, national/EU legislation – to name but a few. This brings its own challenges and opportunities as companies develop and implement their corporate social responsibility and sustainability programmes. Effective strategies for responsible IT are needed to support companies in this sustainability transformation.

Any organisation which has clear sustainability objectives will not reach them unless it addresses the performance of its IT programme.

Some benefits of sustainable IT

A sustainable IT strategy can help companies reduce their carbon footprint, decrease their waste, lower their energy consumption and decrease their use of finite resources. There are indirect benefits too as investment in technology can be positively used to change ways of working, for example, use of laptops and web-enabled applications in support of remote/flexible working initiatives. Benefits of sustainable IT could include:

• Reduction of the carbon footprint and energy consumption associated with building and running the IT estate.
• Improved resource management through a more efficient response to the demand for computer systems.
• The use of IT to change processes and behaviours in order to minimise wastage of other assets and resources that are used within an organisation.

Capgemini’s Approach

Sustainability is, and has been, integral to the way we do business and who we are.

Our deliverables: We work collaboratively with our clients, viewing each project through a “sustainability lens”, to deliver innovative and sustainable IT transformation solutions.

Our commitment to sustainability: We continue to invest significantly in our own Sustainability Programme which builds on the strong ethical values on which Capgemini was founded and continues with today. Our Programme is based on three main aspects: our environmental impact, the communities in which we operate, as underpinned by our people stream. We engage with a number of organisations, such as Forum for the Future and Business in the Community, to help us with our thought leadership, benchmarking and best practice. We recognise that our own sustainability performance is also dependent to a degree on our suppliers, and as part of our Sustainable Procurement programme we are implementing a supplier development initiative to help us address relevant key sustainability issues. Further, Capgemini is a leading member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply’s (CIPS) external Advisory Group on Sustainable / Responsible Procurement. We are working with CIPS to shape and develop training materials, case studies and publications to promote sustainable procurement practices.

Capgemini capability

Our consulting, technology and outsourcing teams have deep industry experience with detailed knowledge of the latest technologies, supplemented by years of implementation experience.

Our clients benefit from collaborative relationships with subject matter experts.

Our portfolio of projects underpinned by sustainability principles continues to grow.

We enable businesses to transform, leveraging technology. We draw on our own learnings/sustainability programme to deliver innovation through sustainability.

Our Credentials

Capgemini’s sustainability credentials have been recognised by a number of awards and listings. These include winning of Vodafone’s Corporate Responsibility Engagement Award as announced at Vodafone’s 2008 Global Supplier Awards, our listings in The Times newspaper’s Top 50 Places Where Women Want to Work for the third year running and in the Business in the Community 2008 Corporate Responsibility Index of top 100 performing companies. Capgemini is part of the FTSE4Good Index of companies which meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards.

For more information on Capgemini’s Sustainability Programme please refer to our Sustainability section