ESG in IT is about governing decisions - not about reporting devices
25 February 2026 · by Belinda Fjord
Most organisations can report emissions - far fewer influence them. In IT, sustainability outcomes are determined by catalogue design, lifecycle length, refresh discipline, and end-of-life governance. When procurement, operations, and finance act in silos, ESG remains reactive instead of embedded. True circular ambition requires lifecycle thinking from deployment to retirement - turning compliance into operational capability.
Some of the most valuable meetings I have with customers are the ones where we never discuss price. Instead, we discuss responsibility.
Not in abstract terms, but in very practical ones. How decisions are made. Who makes them. And how those decisions shape the environmental impact of IT across its entire lifecycle.
As ESG requirements accelerate - particularly under CSRD - I see a clear development. Organisations are getting better at reporting. But many are still working to embed sustainability into the actual decisions that define their IT landscape.
Influence is the real question.
Most companies today can report on Scope 1 and 2 with reasonable confidence. Many can also provide data for some of the Scope 3 categories.
But when the conversation turns to the use-phase emissions of IT equipment, something changes.
The real question is not how to report these emissions.
The real question is how to influence them.
Because use-phase emissions are not reduced by better reporting structures, but shaped by operational choices:
Which models are approved in the catalogue
How energy efficiency standards are prioritised
How long devices stay in use
Whether refresh is driven by habit or by actual performance
Whether end-of-life is treated as disposal or as an integrated circular step
If sustainability is primarily addressed at the reporting stage, we are describing consequences of decisions already made. The real impact lies earlier - in how we design and manage the lifecycle.
Procurement, IT operations and finance are rarely fully aligned
Another pattern I often observe is the gap between functions.
Procurement negotiates framework agreements and pricing. IT operations define configuration standards, support models and refresh cadence. Finance increasingly asks for carbon data and lifecycle transparency.
Each function acts rationally within its own priorities.
But without a shared lifecycle perspective - deploy, manage, retire - sustainability becomes fragmented.
A procurement team may secure a competitive contract. IT operations may shorten the refresh cycle to reduce support complexity. Finance may later question why carbon intensity per employee is increasing.
No single decision is necessarily wrong. But if they are not connected through a common governance framework, ESG becomes reactive instead of embedded.
IT is one of the areas where environmental ambition, operational reality and financial accountability come together in very concrete ways. That requires coordination - not just data.
Circular ambition requires lifecycle discipline
Almost every organisation today speaks about circular economy.
Reuse. Refurbishment. Responsible end-of-life.
But circularity does not start at retirement. It is defined much earlier.
It is influenced by:
How flexible leasing structures are
Whether warranties reflect realistic device lifetimes
How well assets are tracked
How consistently users are guided towards energy-efficient configurations
From compliance exercise to organisational capability
There is a natural tendency to treat ESG as a compliance requirement. A framework to satisfy regulators, investors or rating agencies.
But in IT, ESG can become something more than compliance.
It can become a capability.
A capability to connect procurement and operations. A capability to integrate carbon considerations into configuration decisions. A capability to use data from the use-phase to refine future standards. A capability to design retirement processes that genuinely support circular economy rather than simply document it.
In my experience, the organisations that move in this direction do not look for a universal template. They ask better questions about their own governance. They accept that sustainability in IT is not a separate initiative, but part of how they run their technology environment.
And perhaps that is where the conversation about ESG in IT should increasingly take place - not only in the sustainability report, but in the operational decisions that shape it long before it is measured.
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