Two years on from the launch of the Singapore Green Plan 2030 – a whole-of-nation movement to advance Singapore’s national agenda on sustainable development – we have been seeing an increasing number of businesses taking steps to reduce their environmental impact.
Investments in green finance and green energy consumption have dominated headlines, but another – sometimes overlooked – route for organisations to achieve their sustainability objectives is through investment in the cloud.
According to IDC, by 2024, cloud computing has the potential to reduce carbon emissions by one billion metric tons globally. One of the major ways that the cloud assists with this is by helping companies devise more efficient ways of operating by designing, building, deploying and recycling hardware, such that businesses end up using less electricity.
But what exactly does going green with cloud entail, and how can organisations get started?
Reducing power consumption and carbon emissions
Transitioning to the public cloud is a guaranteed route for companies to meet sustainability targets. This is because this helps to simultaneously reduce power consumption – and therefore, costs – and reduce carbon emissions.
According to Accenture, migration to the public cloud could reduce CO2 emissions by 59 million tons globally every year – the equivalent of taking 22 million cars off the road. Migration involves moving a business’ data and business operations to a cloud computing environment, with public cloud being one of several types of cloud adoption strategies.
The benefits of migrating to a public cloud are it allows users to access data and resources via the internet, and is typically more cost-effective with highly scalable cloud computing solutions – this makes it easier for technology to be upgraded to introduce more energy-efficient applications.
A big part of this comes from making data centres more energy efficient and greener – data centres require massive amounts of energy to power servers and networks, and an equally large amount of energy to cool these servers down.
The public cloud is able to optimise cooling and operate more power-efficient servers. Secondly, the public cloud also has the network and data analytics to help firms understand where their higher energy consumption comes from, and how they can employ tools to address this to optimise energy-efficient usage.
For example, Alibaba Cloud helped clients reduce 6.863 million MtCO2e (metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent) of emissions in FY2023 by switching from the traditional mode of locally deployed data centres and servers to cloud solutions, according to Alibaba’s latest Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report issued in late July. The proportion of clean energy used in the total energy consumption in the self-built data centers of Alibaba Cloud rose from 21.6 percent in FY2022 to 53.9 percent in fiscal 2023.
AI, machine learning and analytics can tackle the most challenging sectors
Cloud is not just a solution for tech companies; it has the potential to drive green targets across a range of industries and for businesses of all sizes.
Artificial intelligence (AI), which is typically hosted on cloud platforms, is able to programme software and diagnose problems in energy systems to reduce energy use. For example, AI can be used to improve renewable energy systems through giving more accurate predictions of when and where renewable energy resources will be available, so that energy can be produced more efficiently.
AI modelling and analytics have the power to make a huge difference in driving operational efficiency, and in turn, carbon reductions in sectors that are amongst the biggest contributors to carbon emissions such as food systems and construction.
Global food production and supply is one such sector that is a major carbon emissions culprit; it contributes to a striking one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions annually. This includes production, packaging, transport, consumption and waste disposal of food. To introduce more energy-efficient supply chain operations, AI technologies can be employed to optimize irrigation and fertilizer applications for crops, use data analytics to integrate weather conditions with crop growth, and implement smart farming systems that ensure early detection and alert of food perishing so that it can be redistributed to minimise wastage.
Another significant contributor to annual greenhouse gas emissions is the construction industry, which is responsible for almost 40 percent of global energy-related carbon emissions. The Internet of Things (IoT) can help in the decarbonisation of energy consumption by creating cloud-based solutions like construction management systems, 3D-modelling and VR technology that allow construction companies to be more efficient in planning. It can also create digital scenarios and plans before they get on site, meaning more efficient real-world operations. This technology can also create simulated scenarios to train employees and workers in a safe environment before they go on site.
Putting it into practice
Businesses looking to enhance their sustainability credentials and reduce costs in operational areas will need to prioritise investments into green infrastructure.
This includes understanding the areas they want to tackle first, and secondly choosing the right cloud vendor that will be able to meet these needs. Cloud providers themselves can help businesses access this intelligence and transform these insights into concrete ways to green their operations, such as via Alibaba Cloud’s platform.
With sustainability becoming a key and necessary facet of business strategies, Alibaba Cloud launched their Energy Expert programme in 2022 – a sustainability platform that helps customers worldwide measure, analyse and manage the carbon emissions of their business activities and products.
This platform can also provide actionable insights and energy-saving recommendations as additional ways for customers to accelerate their sustainability journeys. As of March 2023, Energy Expert has helped 2,580 enterprises worldwide to take informed actions towards their sustainability goal.
These initiatives are also taking off in Singapore. We plan to work with partners to help 10,000 global companies to accelerate their sustainability journey over the next three years and Singapore businesses will be offered a pilot programme of Energy Expert as part of this.
Cloud computing has huge capabilities in supporting businesses’ sustainability ambitions and efforts. It can sharpen operational efficiencies and help them achieve stretch goals like replacing carbon emission-heavy fossil fuels with renewable energy options. As a company, it’s equally important to us to pave the way by walking the talk. We are working towards achieving carbon neutrality across our operations by 2030.
In short, green cloud computing options are out there. Businesses need to start by examining their operations and having an idea of where they want to be. The next step is reaching out to partners who can help them to devise a sustainable cloud-native framework. Singapore is already pushing for this at a national level, having pushed out initiatives to support firms in developing and commercialising innovative low-carbon solutions through the Singapore Green Plan 2030.
The government has also outlined new criteria in 2022 to step up the use of sustainable energy for data centers here. With these initiatives and support from cloud providers on hand, businesses should be able to approach sustainable cloud strategies with confidence.
