IBM’s Green Goal
Increasingly, the tech giants of the world are brought up when climate change comes up, with critics arguing that it absorbs large quantities of energy that drives greenhouse gas emissions. Theser corporations will be under increased pressure to continue the manufacture and delivery of their goods and services, all while under extreme environmental scrutiny, as technology embeds itself deeper into the citizens of this world. Many of the world’s leading technology companies have made significant environmental commitments as they aim to boost their own environmental efficiency, or spark broader social change in terms of carbon emissions and hazardous waste.
In 2019, Amazon led the way by announcing the Climate Pledge, in order to evoke companies to vow to meet the goals laid down in the Paris Climate Agreement by 2040, a decade before the deadline laid down in the agreement. Since its announcement, several giants have signed on it, including Infosys, Microsoft and Uber, and as of 16th February, 2021, IBM is the latest big name to join the list.
By the end of this decade, the organisation committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions, striving to avoid polluting before turning to new technology that could trap carbon dioxide after it is released. IBM is one of the few companies who instead of promising to delve into developing ways to capture carbon dioxide after it is emitted, stress the need to avoid toxic emission in the first place- which sounds a lot less wishy-washy than “we will try to rein the carbon back when it’s on its way out”, the more popular pledge. In addition, they aim to turn to renewable sources for 90% of their electric consumption by the end of the deceased, and cut down their greenhouse gas emissions by 65%, compared to 2010 levels, by 2025.
In October 2020, IBM announced that it will be splitting into two public companies wherein their IT services, which is IBM’s legacy, will be under a new name. Keeping that in mind IBM is placing more emphasis on its cloud storage and AI, since this changes puts IBM in more direct competition in the cloud market with giants such as Amazon and Microsoft, who are infamous for their voracious energy consumption. All three businesses have now made substantial commitments to reduce the emissions that fuels climate change.
There is still room for more action in the current IBM climate pledge, as the organisation has so set goals for reducing emissions from its supply chain or consumer use of its goods yet. IBM does not monitor all the emissions from its supply chain, and in 2019, the largest portion of their carbon emissions were from indirect sources. However, there is also room for change for the better- these goals are not inscribed in stone, and even if they were, there’s always room to add, if it makes the world better.
-Team Complimentary with Compliments