U N C O V E R I N G T H E L A Y E R S

benefits in sustainability and performance are drawing increasing interest.

Regional drivers: Why Europe is leading the green IT movement expenditures and a clearer story to tell in their sustainability reports.

The business case: Green IT and the bottom line scale, technical expertise and lifecycle flexibility – often at a lower cost than building capabilities in-house.

It’ s a brand and talent differentiator

Europe’ s IT leaders are setting the pace on environmental trends. Cultural alignment with environmental stewardship, robust public pressure on sustainability and sweeping regulatory frameworks created an environment where green IT isn’ t a niche initiative – it’ s a business expectation.

Programmes like the European Green Deal, the Green Digital Coalition and the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities incentivise IT organisations to embed sustainability into their

For CIOs and CFOs alike, the financial case for green IT is becoming more urgent and more measurable.

Efficiency drives operational savings

Infrastructure optimisation – through smarter workload distribution, energyefficient hardware and lifecycle extension – translates into reduced power consumption, lower cooling costs and fewer premature capital investments. These savings scale dramatically in large enterprise environments.

operations. Energy prices in Europe – especially in markets like Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordics – also make energy efficiency not just ethical, but economically essential.

Let’ s consider a hypothetical example. A mid-sized European financial institution, facing high data centre costs and mounting ESG expectations, conducts a full audit of its infrastructure.

With new visibility into underutilised servers and excessive cooling overhead, they implement a phased consolidation, invest in infrastructure monitoring and extend support for aging hardware that remains reliable. In parallel, they pilot liquid cooling in their most compute-intensive environments.

The result? A measurable reduction in energy usage, fewer capital

Regulatory risk Is financial risk

The cost of noncompliance with EU climate-related regulations is rising. Mandates are backed by potential penalties, reputational fallout and restrictions on access to ESG funding.

Green upfront, lean long-term

Innovations like liquid cooling and intelligent monitoring systems come with upfront investment – but often reduce TCO over the lifespan of infrastructure.

Third-party support lowers internal burden

Managing aging infrastructure or implementing new green technologies doesn’ t need to overwhelm internal teams. Partnering with specialised thirdparty providers gives CIOs access to

Customers, investors and employees are watching. Businesses with strong sustainability credentials attract better talent, build more resilient supply chains and often gain a reputational edge in increasingly values-driven markets.

The long game of performance and planet

As technology becomes more embedded in every facet of the enterprise, CIOs have a unique opportunity – and responsibility – to be part of the sustainability conversation. The choices made in architecture, procurement, operations and innovation will shape the organisation’ s climate impact for years to come. Fortunately, European CIOs don’ t have to choose between sustainability and performance. With the right tools, insights and strategies, they can design IT systems that are leaner, greener and stronger than ever before.

Building a sustainable IT roadmap: Questions for the CIO

Sustainable IT is a journey. To get started or refine their current path, CIOs can ask themselves the following:

• What are our largest sources of IT energy consumption today?

• How much visibility do we have into infrastructure efficiency?

• Are our refresh cycles aligned with performance needs or legacy habits?

• Do we have policies to assess and extend the lifecycle of hardware?

• Are our procurement standards considering long-term environmental impact?

• What emerging technologies – like liquid cooling – might be worth exploring?

• How are we preparing for sustainability reporting requirements?

Answering these questions can help CIOs identify not just where improvements are possible, but where they may already have untapped opportunities to make IT more sustainable. �

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