It’s critical to consider the important steps that businesses have taken to achieve net zero as we get closer to the end of 2023. At Digital Catapult, I frequently speak with business leaders from various sectors, including manufacturing, engineering, transportation, and the artistic industries, to understand their pain points and priorities, despite the fact that some of the sustainability hype has faded from the agenda.  ,
One thing is evident from these discussions: IT and technology leaders continue to place a higher priority on sustainability, and this is not going to change. We have set ourselves up properly to achieve net zero with 26 years left, but there are challenges that lie ahead the following year, so IT leaders must be ready to overcome them with green innovation.
The sophisticated technology industry will be partly responsible for showing how green innovation can help companies of all sizes. In addition,  ,
Giving credit where it is due,
Businesses have been paving the way in the past year to address some of the biggest sustainability issues facing the IT industry, such as e-waste. The availability of remanufactured laptops from Dell, Lenovo, and HP as well as the sharp decline in these units ‘ prices are just a few examples from this past year. These tools, which are then reasonably priced, significantly contribute to lowering the amount of e-waste produced by the IT industry as a whole.  ,
The more effective graphic processing units ( GPUs ) that were introduced this year also have significant sustainability benefits. The RAPIDS Accelerator for Apache Spark, a game-changer that could reduce costs and carbon emissions by up to 80 %, was introduced by Nvidia in August.
Nvidia is a crucial partner of Digital Catapults, helping startups on the Bristol-based MyWorld program, which aims to grow and support startups in the West of England by providing up to £50,000 in funding to each participating company.  ,
It has been both interesting and encouraging to observe Nvidia’s dedication to sustainability over the previous year. To enable IT leaders to make the most lasting decisions possible, it is crucial that others follow Nvidia’s example in 2024 and concentrate on both evaluating the climate impact of their products and sharing this information with them.
This demonstrates the significance of maintaining levels of interest in ecological innovation by testing new products that will appeal to technology leaders in businesses all over the nation.  ,
successful application of extra heat and symbiosis,
This year, I’ve even seen some fantastic tales of IT symbiosis, in which organizations and companies have discovered new ways to use green innovation to win over technology decision-makers across the nation. For instance,  , there is a growing trend toward installing datacenters following to swimming pools, which allows extra heat from the servers to warm the pool’s water while cooling the datacentre at the same time. Both the company running the datacentre and the organization in charge of the swimming pool benefit greatly from the energy savings as a result.
This kind of out-of-the-box thinking not only saves both parties a ton of money in terms of energy costs, but it also drastically reduces the carbon footprint of the organizations.  ,
It’s fascinating to note that other facilities can also profit from the extra heat produced by storing and processing data, in addition to swimming pools. Additionally, datacentres are being used to power homes and businesses all over Europe. This level of urban planning and innovation will lead to new revenue streams for the IT industry in addition to considerable carbon reductions.
Getting ready for the” Quantum Revolution” and nbsp,
We continue to face numerous sustainability challenges, and the second major issue is probably going to involve quantum technology. The recently launched Quantum Technology Access Programme of Digital Catapult, which included participants from the transportation, infrastructure, and energy sectors, was vastly oversubscribed despite the fact that there is now a huge demand for quantum technologies.
Leading UK businesses are in high demand for classical solutions that will improve their competitive edge, as evidenced by the oversubscription. Businesses that are also simultaneously committed to green innovation must embrace the dawn of quantum technology.  ,
In addition to offering enormous opportunities in areas like processing power and cyber security, quantum computing even offers a wide range of solutions that conventional computing is currently unable to understand. Because of this, IT leaders in the UK are increasingly looking for quantum solutions.
The problem we must resolve is again more connected to cooling. In order to function, quantum computers need extremely warm environments—near zero, in fact. Designers must reduce the possibility of anything upsetting the delicate position in order to maintain systems in a quantum state.  ,
In order for both of them to benefit from the positive power that quantum can provide without significantly increasing their energy needs, we need to find more environmentally friendly ways to cool quantum computers. To address some of these issues, a wide range of experts will be needed, including quantum hardware specialists who deal immediately with the qubits, engineers who create the cryogenics systems that cool the hardware, control systems for programming the quantum bits, and thermodynamics researchers.
More IT leaders will have the resources they need to further embrace this level of green innovation and emerging technology after this team is in place in order to spur growth and reduce carbon emissions.  ,
While it’s encouraging to see how responsible innovation has changed over the past year, IT leaders still need to address and get ready for potential challenges in 2024. More IT leaders embracing innovative solutions that will increase productivity while reducing carbon emissions excites me.
