Sustainable IT and IT for Sustainability: Caroline Löfgren speaks to Amazon Web Services' Christopher Wellise and Visma's Robin Åkerberg
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What are the two key dimensions of climate impact that AWS focuses on?
We think about climate in sort of two key dimensions. One is through the way we consume energy from a demand perspective. So how we improve, increase the efficiency of our own infrastructure. And the other is how we power it, right? So on the supply side, renewable energy is obviously something that's super, super important, not only to our business, but also as a method of greening the grid for all customers. Customers globally. PUE is challenging because it's essentially a ratio of the amount of energy that goes into a data center, what gets directed toward the critical infrastructure versus what's used for everything else.
Hello everyone and welcome to Orbit, the HD podcast series, where we speak to leaders and innovators from across the software and technology ecosystem discussing the key trends changing how we all do business. I'm Caroline Lofgren, Chief Sustainability Officer at HG, and today I'm joined by two sustainability leaders within the tech sector to discuss our industry's role in navigating the world's sustainability issues. Before we get started, why don't you both introduce yourselves?
Sure. Hi. Great to great to be with you today, Caroline. I'm Christopher Welles. So I'm the Director of Sustainability for Amazon Web Services, AWS.
Very happy to happy to be here as well, Caroline. My name is Robin Okerberry. I'm from 28 years old from Helsinki, Finland, working as head of sustainability for Bismo.
Great and and delighted to have you both with us today. So you've joined us from two big businesses. So Christopher from one of the large world's largest tech companies, and Robin, you're from one of the largest companies within the HD family. So as I said, two big businesses but still at a different scale. So AWS, one of the world's largest computing businesses. VISMA, one of the largest core business service or software providers in Europe. So you will have faced and are probably facing different challenges when it comes to sustainability within your businesses. But I think we can probably all agree that one common challenge that we all face is climate change. So I suggest that we kick off today's podcast by talking about climate change in the context of technology businesses.
And I guess with climate change being such a high priority across many businesses, across society, and for regulators, more and more businesses are keen to do their bit in combating climate change. At HD, we're one of the first PE firms globally to commit to the science-based targets initiative. So we're trying to do our part too. And I'd love to hear a bit more about AWS and about VISMA and the work that you do across your businesses.
Sure. Thanks, Jill. And happy to jump in. And just to sort of level set, you know, when we talk about cloud computing at a company like Amazon Web Services, what we're really referring to are the on-demand delivery of IT resources via the internet through what is typically known as a pay as you go type format, right? So instead of buying, owning, and maintaining your own data centers and servers. Customers, large enterprises, SMBs, governments can actually acquire technology such as compute power, storage, databases, and other services as an as-needed basis. It's sort of similar to how consumers flip a switch to turn on lights in their home and the power company sends electricity. With cloud computing.
Companies like AWS manage and maintain the technology infrastructure in a secure environment for our customers. And then they access the resources via the internet to develop and run their applications. So obviously, when we're talking about a business like a cloud computing business, energy is super material, super top of mind, directly connected to issues like climate change. So we think about climate. in sort of two key dimensions. One is through the way we consume energy from a demand perspective. So how we improve, increase the efficiency of our own infrastructure. And the other is how we power it, right? So on the supply side, renewable energy is obviously something that's super, super important, not only to our business, but also as a method of greening the grid for all customers globally.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the two key dimensions of climate impact that AWS focuses on?
0:00–4:34
2
How does Visma define and begin tackling climate change across its business units?
4:34–9:13
3
What is the difference between sustainable IT and IT for sustainability according to the guests?
9:13–13:58
4
How does AWS achieve higher energy efficiency and lower carbon footprints in its data centers?
13:58–18:37
5
What role do renewable energy and PUE metrics play in measuring cloud sustainability?
18:37–23:36
6
How are scope‑1, scope‑2, and scope‑3 emissions measured and reported by tech companies?
23:36–28:35
7
What are the emerging standards and regulations that prevent green‑washing in ESG reporting?
28:35–33:13
8
How can employee engagement and corporate purpose drive faster sustainability action?
33:13–36:29
Speakers
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