Every business today cares about corporate social responsibility—or every business should, anyway. And on a global scale, one of the most pressing issues we currently face is the impact of runaway carbon emissions on the livability of our planet. Now digital innovation is helping companies improve the sustainability of their operations.
Strategy, Citrix
Much of our global carbon footprint results from the physical constraints of traditional work: what you can do depends on where you are and what you have with you.
To be productive, you’ve got to commute to a climate-controlled office and use applications delivered from a power-hungry corporate data center. To meet with people in other locations, you’ve got to travel there—burning carbon along the way.
Digital innovation helps erase physical constraints. When employees can access a complete digital workspace from anywhere, they can work remotely and their business doesn’t need to provide (or heat, or cool, or light) as much office space.
When digital services are delivered via the cloud, public cloud providers like Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft can leverage massive efficiencies of scale that no corporate data center could match. When people can meet and collaborate virtually using digital tools, they don’t have to travel as much.
The more you embrace digital, the less physical you need and the more sustainable you become. More productive, too—so sustainability can come without sacrifice. That’s the kind of innovation our planet needs today
Christian Reilly, VP of Global Product and Technology Strategy at Citrix Systems
As published in TIME magazine
