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Running a business has become more costly since inflation and the rise of energy prices facilitated a new age of cost-saving measures so businesses could still keep their profits to a certain degree.

This all is underlined by a continuous move to Cloud-backed solutions, which should help companies with lowering their infrastructural, network, staffing, and location costs (for those hosting their own data centers, they can take up a lot of space, as well as use a lot of energy).

But the consideration should not only be placed towards lowering business costs, as the current trends suggest a shift toward greener IT practices in general, which in themselves can at first sight be seen as a more costly move; however, the truth is elsewhere.

How green IT improves business sustainability

Under the term Green IT, or green computing, we mean the practice of using environmentally sustainable design, manufacturing, use and disposal of computers, chips and other technology to limit their harmful impact on the environment. This includes a planned reduction in carbon emissions, and energy demands, promoting sustainability through the use of renewable materials and a circular economy.

For businesses, this means approving practices such as potentially outsourcing certain parts of their company needs, such as IT, as in that case the costs incurred for, let’s say, data center maintenance, goes to the other company. However, the effectiveness of the business should not be negatively impacted, as such a transaction serves two purposes – to make the company more effective by delegating IT tasks to professionals (such as network cybersecurity), it also lowers the businesses energy footprint, reducing its direct impact on the environment.

Practically, it also creates cost savings. Feel free to check out ESET’s cloud management cost calculator, which should convince any business about the benefits of moving from on-premises to cloud-based solutions.

With the saved money, businesses will be freer to invest in further practices to comply with future laws calling for further green transitional measures, such as those indicated by the European Union, or certificates requiring sound environment-friendly practices.

For enterprises, the green transition also changes the makeup of their supply-chains

Outsourcing is just one way how to change a company’s supply chain, but as more and more companies will start to move towards greener practices, the logistical side of decision-making will require rethinking contemporary business practices.

Enterprises have also started to lay off people due to cost-cutting measures, which makes sense; a person’s salary per year can, depending on their role, be quite large, but so can their responsibilities. As a consequence, the enterprise can inherently lose brain-power and skilled workers, which they would need to rehire or redistribute their work, creating more internal pressure within the company itself, lowering its capacity to respond to a variety of issues that might arise, IT-related incidents including.

With green practices, costs can be reduced in a way, in which the company does not lose its edge. Suppose that instead of firing employees, they could invest in more remote-work practices, lowering the firm’s energy and building demands, saving on energy bills, rents, parking, and more.

One easy step toward green practices is to turn devices and things off. Equipment such as printers, ACs, Monitors, and lights, should be powered down when not used.  Sales and marketing departments have a role to play in green IT, too. Picking equipment that will last and consumes the least amount of energy necessary for the task to be performed are both ways to reduce the carbon footprint of IT. For example, remote workers tend to use notebooks, which use less energy than laptops, and laptops use less energy than desktop computers.

Just by focusing on trying to procure supply chain companies based on their environmental practices and protections goes a long way toward transitioning an enterprise toward increased sustainability, cascading best practices down the chain.

Going further, your company could also get a certificate, according to the ISO 14001 standard, which demarcates and maps out a framework that a company or organization can follow to set up an effective environmental management system.  Designed for any organization, regardless of its activity or sector, it can provide assurance to company management and employees as well as external stakeholders that environmental impact is being measured and improved.

How can ESET factor in green decision-making

At ESET, our products are continuously improved, focusing on areas deemed important for current practices. As far as the environment is concerned, ESET offers cloud-based services for businesses through its ESET PROTECT Platform, which helps reduce costs as there is no additional need for hardware, software, app patching, or personnel. 

With our enterprise-focused offerings, such as ESET PROTECT Elite and MDR, we enable businesses with resource allocation, as our MDR solutions can help skilled IT personnel already overwhelmed with other tasks manage their security, reducing risk and allowing for business continuity, making business complexity more manageable. All in all, ESET, with its 30 years of independent cybersecurity operations worldwide, has huge experience in protecting clients across all sectors – and very specific expertise in a range of industries and verticals.

Using ESET solutions allows you to leverage that experience, protecting the progress required by the green transition, for a greener and more sustainable future.