I'm Dr Justin Sutton-Parker, I hold a PhD in computer science and a Masters in sustainability - both majoring in sustainable information and communication technology (ICT).

The scientific research I conduct at Warwick University, for global ICT brands, ICT eco certifications and the United Kingdom government advances practices and online tools that focus on reducing ICT carbon footprint, e-waste and energy consumption.

This enables brands such as Google and Microsoft, eco certifications such as TCO Certified, government departments and national net zero programmes, to encourage their customers and users to adopt sustainable ICT strategies.

From a direct customer approach, I work with businesses to create and maintain sustainable IT strategies that reduce IT carbon footprint for both supply chain and energy, e-waste plus associated costs. The combination of focusing on both carbon footprint and cost reduction ensures that all stakeholders across the organisation understand and support the adoption of sustainable IT.

This is important as ICT causes as much as 5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Via the findings and output of my research and the partnerships with these organisations, we have collectively helped companies, public sector organisations and charities all over the world to reduce their ICT environmental impact and financial costs by 30% on average.

The activity supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12, 'responsible consumption and production' by applying this goal to ICT at scale. This in turn, ultimately meaningfully drives SDG 13, 'climate action'. 

As an example, my research in the education sector shows that by applying sustainable ICT practices to English state schools at a national level, 255.8 million kgCO2e of ICT GHG emissions will be avoided every year. In context, that level of emissions requires 11.6 million trees to remove the carbon from Earth's atmosphere. 

Commenting on the research, Professor Russell Viner, Chief Scientific Advisor at the Department for Education notes that ‘We consider this a key step towards the progress of sustainable IT adoption associated with an estimated 16.1 million teachers, support staff and pupils and recognise this as one of the largest sustainable IT research projects conducted to date.’

While research is fundamental to improving how the world tackles ICT carbon footprint, so too is the ability to adopt sustainable ICT practices with ease and to demonstrate meaningful impact. 

My research shows that stakeholders responsible for ICT feel that company wide ICT carbon footprint measurement and sustainable ICT strategy adoption can be too costly and time consuming due to complexity and the positive impact is difficult to demonstrate.

To overcome these barriers, my PhD research delivered the world's first sustainable ICT applications platform called Px3. The various online modules enable any size of business to measure the impact of many thousands of computers in an instant and to model sustainable ICT strategies showing reductions to environmental impact and financial costs.  

By creating the platform, what would have previously consumed many months of expensive sustainable ICT consulting, can now be achieved in a matter of minutes with very little cost. To date, the platform has measured and modelled data for over 5 million computers for organisations in every sector and across more than 100 countries.  

I don't consider my research, consulting, training and speaking activity as work - it is a passion. I am simply trying to ensure that organisations understand that sustainable ICT is good for the planet, for profit and effective for responding to ever expanding climate change related policies, such as net zero aspirations.

As such, if you are an ICT brand wanting to validate the sustainability credential of your products and services or an organisation needing to adopt sustainable ICT reporting and strategies, then I'd love to hear from you.