Throughout 2024, TalkTalk Business is partnering with CIO Watercooler, a networking community for IT leaders and leading technologists where they come together and share their news and views and discuss the challenges they are facing.  

Earlier today, 3rd September 2024, our Head of Pre-Sales Paul McMain, led a digital boardroom discussion on how technology can accelerate sustainability. Achieving sustainability goals is crucial for many British businesses as they try to attract climate-conscious employees, customers, and investors. 

In today’s discussion, we explored how intelligent networks and smart spaces can create energy-efficient environments. We also discussed how IT technologies can optimise energy consumption, reduce estate costs and drive efficient operations.  

While the detailed discussions by IT leaders in our CIO Watercooler event remains confidential, we’re here to share the top insights and provide you with a quick summary.     

The Technology Driving Sustainability 

By adopting new technologies, organisations can support their ESG initiatives and drive towards their sustainability goals. Today technology is being seen as an enabler for your sustainability strategy and that it can, in fact, reduce energy consumption.  

Below are a few of the technologies that were discussed in our digital boardroom: 

SD-WAN: Traditional Wide Area Networks (WANs) involve physical devices across multiple locations, requiring physical site visits to manage, leading to greater energy consumption and increased carbon emissions. In contrast, the newer Software Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) offers intelligent traffic routing with central cloud-based management. This reduces the need for physical network hardware and site visits so reducing the energy consumption needed to set up and manage the network.  

IoT: The Internet of Things (IoT) isn’t just about new devices connected to the internet. IoT sensors can measure everything from heat and moisture to carbon and energy usage. Providing data like this allows for a business to analyse its output and implement a plan to reduce energy and resource.  

Voice: Traditional phone systems rely on physical PBX and extensive hardware, consuming large amounts of energy. Digital voice solutions, however, operate over the internet, using softphone technology, eliminating the need for bulky, energy-intensive equipment. Switching to digital voice can significantly reduce your business’s energy consumption. 

The Sphere of Influence 

IT leaders play a crucial role in driving sustainability. Whether it’s implementing SD-WAN, removing physical PBXs, or integrating with cloud networks – these will all help contribute to achieving the organisation’s wider sustainability objectives.  

Organisations we work with are already trialling energy-saving services such as: smart spaces in buildings, smart sensors that monitor and reduce energy consumption, circular technology deals that offset carbon, and the enablement of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) which can reduce device waste. 

This influence can extend beyond your organisation. Some of these energy-saving services can reach beyond the boundary of your internal operations and can encourage your customers to engage with you in a more sustainable way too. 

The Importance of a Cloud- Managed Network 

As we alluded to above, having a cloud-managed network allows you to manage your infrastructure in real-time from any device, anywhere. This reduces the need for hardware to power and cool (e.g., switches, servers, PBXs) and minimises site visits, thereby cutting carbon emissions. 

Additionally, a cloud-managed network can integrate with smart devices to measure, monitor, and manage device utilisation and energy efficiency across an organisation, driving down costs for electricity, water, air quality tools, space, and more. 

Join our next CIO Watercooler session 

Have you benefited from the learnings in this blog?  

Join us for our next in-person session, a half-day event bringing IT leaders together to discuss The Connectivity Revolution and Innovative Network Solutions. This event will be held on Wednesday, 9th October in London, featuring the CIO Watercooler team, our Sales Director Ian Cairns, and our Head of Public Sector & Solutions Sales, Mark Cunningham. 

Click here to sign-up!