Irish companies want to be carbon neutral but many have no plan

A growing number of Irish companies are placing increasing importance on becoming carbon neutral, but more than a third admitted that they don’t have a sustainability strategy, a new survey has found.

The survey carried out for IT and security solutions specialist DataSolutions, which covered 105 IT leaders, found almost half of Irish companies plan to become carbon neutral in the future, with two-thirds planning on achieving that goal by 2030.

Sustainability is crucial to economic recovery in a post-pandemic world, according to almost a third of respondents. Climate change issues could cause exclusion from customer or tender opportunities, 34 per cent said. Reputational damage was a concern for 54 per cent, with the cost of climate change mitigation ranking highly as a problem for 48 per cent of respondents.

However, 38 per cent said their organisation doesn’t have a sustainability strategy. Some 36 per cent said their organisation wasn’t doing a good enough job on environmental and social sustainability.

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Among the top barriers to becoming carbon neutral were a lack of green alternatives, which 47 per cent cited; 42 per cent said there was more of a focus on near-term issues; and 40 per cent said it was too expensive.

More than 60 per cent of IT leaders said the tech industry is not sustainable enough and needs to change quickly; 71 per cent think technology will play a positive role in the war against global warming.

Pressing

“There’s no denying it – climate change is the most pressing and urgent issue of our time. And the time for people and businesses to act is right now. Worryingly, there is still a disjoint between the desire to be carbon-neutral or more sustainable and actually putting into place the solutions and strategies to achieve this goal,” said Michael O’Hara, group managing director of DataSolutions and co-founder of Techies Go Green, a movement of IT and tech-oriented companies committed to decarbonising their businesses.