Business solutions for climate: Tech & IT

The still young IT industry is rapidly becoming a significant contributor to climate change because of its voracious consumption of energy. Upstream, it relies on the costly and polluting extraction of rare metals that often come from conflict zones. Will the Internet be greener, better, faster, stronger? Discover two initiatives that aim at making the IT sector greener one on #Ideas4Climate.

During COP24, 20 leading business newspapers feature innovative solutions to switch to a low-carbon economy. The international collaborative journalism operation Solutions and Co involves 20 international newspapers including The Financial Times, Les Echos, Kommersant, Hindu Business Line, Yicai Global, and El Economista. SolutionsAndCo is coordinated by Sparknews with the support of the Solar Impulse Foundation, the Climate Groupe, and UN Global Compact France.

To avoid continuing to extract and refine rare metals, French company Morphosis specializes in upcycling IT products

Morphosis is one of the leaders in the extraction and refining of rare and precious metals from waste and end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment in Europe. It carries out the manual and mechanical dismantling of the products, the treatments, the refining and the valorization of the so-called “strategic” metals (gold, silver, platinum). They then market the extracted raw materials, while focusing on the development of environmentally friendly extraction technologies that consume less energy and generate less waste. Read more on Hindu Business Line, Ventures Africa, Valor Econômico (in Portuguese), Il Sole (in Italian), El Economista (in Spanish), Les Echos, L’Economiste du Maroc and Lëtzebuerger Journal (in French).

Op-ed by Guillaume Pitron, Author of “The war of rare metals: the hidden face of the energy and digital transition”

In this op-ed, Guillaume Pitron analyses the issue posed by the ecological transition’s reliance on the mining industry. Indeed, as most green technologies (e.g. electric cars, windmills, solar panels etc…) rely on metal to exist and function, the author puts into light a new form of dependency over rare materials’ extraction. Read more on The Hindu Business Line and Ventures Africa.

Op-ed by Gilles Vermot Desroches, Director of Sustainable Development of Schneider Electrics and Vice-President of Global Compact

In this op-ed Gilles Vermot Desroches analyses how companies can use the digital revolution as an opportunity to boost the energy transition. More and more technologies are being developed therefore leading to a higher consumption of energy. According to the Vice-President of Global Compact, by allowing users to control their energy consumption, companies could participate in the energy transition and the reduction of their carbon footprint. Read more on Solutions&Co.

You — readers, citizens, leaders, investors, consumers — can help to spread and magnify the effects of these solutions, so that tomorrow’s economy becomes a truly sustainable one.