Cloud computing grants businesses like yours access to vast amounts of processing power and data storage. But did you know that it also helps your organization become more environmentally sustainable? Let’s take a look at some of the ways it can do so.

Dramatically reduces your carbon footprint

A business typically invests in on-premises IT resources to help it scale as it grows. Examples of such resources include email servers to process more emails; data servers to process and store customer data, order information, and the like; and firewalls to protect networks. More often than not, a company consumes more energy as it uses more devices.
 
Thankfully, your organization can turn to cloud providers that use solar and wind energy to power their data centers. If your business relies on fossil fuel power plants for electricity, shifting to green clouds can significantly shrink your carbon footprint.

Allows you to produce less electronic waste

When you acquire your own IT hardware for your business, your machines will likely be of a lower grade than what cloud providers get. Lower-grade machines tend to break down or become obsolete much faster than cloud providers' industrial-grade machines, so the former end up in landfills sooner than the latter.
 
Leveraging cloud computing means renting longer-lasting industrial-grade machines and eliminating your need to acquire your own machines. Furthermore, the cloud allows you to furnish your workstations with thin clients instead of regular PCs. The former is significantly smaller and has fewer components than the latter, so you produce less electronic waste once it's time to dispose of them. Additionally, thin clients use up to 50 times less electricity than regular PCs, further reducing your energy consumption.

Helps you take control of your carbon emission reduction initiatives

Tracking your business’s impact on the environment is difficult, but cloud offerings like Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability can simplify this process. Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, in particular, is comprised of apps that do the following:
 
●      Discover data sources (e.g., employee-owned laptops used for work) and collect sustainability data (e.g., energy consumption) from these in real time
●      Do carbon accounting accurately
●      Check company performance against sustainability goals
●      Derive insights that help organizations improve their green efforts
 
With all of these capabilities, you can collate all of your carbon emissions data to easily determine your environmental footprint. You can also discover problem areas and address these so you meet emissions reduction targets. Last but not least, you can share your data with your business partners and clients to help them determine their environmental footprints and reach their sustainability goals as well.

Is using the cloud necessary to make your business more environmentally sustainable?

Of course, you don’t necessarily have to use the cloud to make your business greener. Among other things, you can install solar panels on your roof or replace regular windows with photovoltaic ones. However, you’ll have to spend a lot of money to fulfill these green initiatives. By leveraging green clouds, you can immediately and significantly reduce your carbon footprint without incurring as much cost. In short, the cloud makes becoming more environmentally friendly more feasible.
 
To learn more about how the cloud can benefit your business and make it greener, talk to our cloud specialists at SimplyClouds.