What we do
Sustainability Services
Ecosystem-led Approach to Power Your Sustainability Strategy
HIGHLIGHTS
- For global businesses, Earth Day has become a directive and a rallying cry to be respectful corporate citizens worldwide.
- The current challenges—tariffs, geopolitical strife, trade, and supply chain disruption—are unique in our history. While this set of challenges is exceptional, the scale is not unprecedented. Change occurs, and it is never entirely predictable.
- The innovative companies we speak of will view sustainability as an opportunity and use it as an engine to drive classic business optimization: Cost containment, operational and energy efficiencies, and regulatory compliance.
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The perpetually adaptive journey
Starting 55 years ago with the goal of advocating thoughtful preservation of our planet, Earth Day now includes one billion people in 193 countries. If you’re looking for an example of how a simple but powerful idea can change the world, look no further than every year on April 22.
For global businesses, Earth Day has become not only a directive but a rallying cry to be respectful corporate citizens of the world.
In each generation of life and business, evolution and adaptation take shape in ways that can’t be predicted. Something as quickly emerging as a geopolitical incident or natural disaster can change the rules of the game in the blink of an eye. Of course, the meteoric evolution of technology in the last 40 years has been the apex example of the multiplying pace of change. Ecosystems—particularly ones that have been in place for generations—can react fitfully to change. Regulations are put in place to create bumpers to keep the economy and global business chugging forward. The 1963 Clean Air Act didn’t solve the problem, but it created the infrastructure to not just observe the impact we were having on the planet, but to do something about it.
It could be said that the current set of challenges—tariffs, geopolitical strife, trade, and supply chain disruption—are unique in our history. While this set of challenges is unique, the scale is not unprecedented. Change occurs, and it is never fully predictable. That’s just the perpetually adaptive journey all things in the natural world travel through.
The smart companies we speak of will view sustainability as an opportunity and use it as an engine to drive classic business optimization: Cost containment, operational and energy efficiencies, and regulatory compliance. These leaders will understand that meeting the challenge head-on will result in not only a positive impression on their collective responsibility, but also their bottom line.
The C-suite sustainability conversation is evolving
As thought leaders in the executive suite, CSOs increasingly require—and demand—a seat at the business transformation table. New revenue streams revealed through sustainability efforts and the migration of data across hybrid clouds are just two examples of value creation opportunities for CSOs. They can harness data to generate meaningful analysis that guides cost-savings and risk mitigation efforts. But just as critically, they can position sustainability as a value creator, an avenue for new revenue streams and cost savings.
Demonstrating business value is critical in any budget-crunching conversation. Part of their fitness regime must be continuously improving energy use across their enterprise and optimizing their IT infrastructure for future success. For example, efficiencies of how legacy code is stored can result in unexpected savings where “hot spots” are identified and are ripe for reducing computing and energy requirements
AI as an adolescent
Much like adolescents discovering their limits, both physically and spiritually, AI is maturing in spurts. Sometimes the speed of growth can catch us unprepared or make us struggle to keep up. Leading the precocious but unpredictable teenager through this part of their journey to full maturation requires a keen eye and steady hand. And these growing pains will surely have sustainability impacts.
As AI scales, sustainability risks are self-evident: Increased energy and water consumption and human avarice can result in ethical misuse, or worse.
However, there are also very clear and achievable benefits to be had by leveraging fit-for-purpose AI solutions to monitor real-time supply chain risks and energy consumption. In addition, greening AI to create lean, energy-efficient models to minimize impact on the environment will be critical as more companies adopt AI into every aspect of their business.
Simply put, AI must be present on any CSO’s agenda, but the “how” will demand a thoughtful and responsible approach.
Ecosystem by industry
As we examine the sustainability challenges and opportunities facing the C-suite, every industry has representative examples based on the complexities of its unique business. But no industry is inoculated from uncertainty or volatility. A car manufacturer in Germany and a convenience retailer in Canada both must create similar core competencies in resilience and business continuity, AI innovation, and ecosystem partnerships.
At this moment, the most representative industry in adapting long-standing practices with AI is the manufacturing industry. Manufacturers have had to report on emissions for years—a practice that not only ensures compliance but has the unintended effect of saving money and time. Today, even if reporting requirements were to disappear, a future-ready manufacturer would continue to monitor and optimize their energy expenditures and outputs. That’s just good business.
The TCS Digital Twindex recently predicted that manufacturers could be the first organizations in global business to enter “Industry 4.5,” a critical transition phase where AI-driven digital twins, Cobots, and edge computing are integrated at scale, bridging from Industry 4.0’s automation, to Industry 5.0’s focus on sustainability, resilience, and human-machine collaboration.
In fact, as AI accelerates, digital twins hold potential for every industry, especially within the sustainability sphere. From optimizing entire supply chains to monitoring the energy cost of an individual product, we see digital twins embedded throughout the future sustainability business ecosystem.
Learn more about digital twins and sustainability below. Stay tuned for a full Digital Twindex report on sustainability later this year.
Adding value to the competitive advantage
The 55 years since the first Earth Day have contained some of the most monumental leaps in human history, most centering around technology. That pace will not decline. As these evolutions and revolutions unfold before us, CSOs will need to apply creativity and critical thinking, with both a long memory and an eye on the future, to continue to innovate, optimize, and contribute to their company’s competitive advantage.
TCS is the partner of choice for organizations that want to harness sustainability to build their businesses. Visit https://www.tcs.com/what-we-do/services/sustainability-services to learn more.
