Sustainability: a non-negotiable in Tech
The technology industry has always been at the cutting edge, innovating to make people’s lives better - but it is now under mounting pressure to do this sustainably especially as digital infrastructure, such as data centres, consumes massive amounts of electricity. By 2040, it could cause 14% of all global emissions, up from 4% today.
Sustainability is quickly becoming a non-negotiable in tech – and not just because of government regulations or consumer expectations. A generational shift is underway - younger entrepreneurs increasingly view sustainability not as an optional extra, but as a fundamental business strategy. As we welcome more SaaS companies in the team.blue group, we’ve seen more and more founders proactively seeking B-Corp certifications and sustainable investors, indicating a profound mindset transformation.
team.blue's sustainability journey
Founders and SMBs alike know that when they choose team.blue, they’re making a sustainable decision. At team.blue, we are truly always thinking ‘what’s next?’. This means asking ourselves the hard questions – the ones that lead to meaningful conversations about how we can do more for our people, our customers and for the planet.
1. At the beginning of 2022, we anchored sustainability in our strategic agenda and set up an ESG committee to hold us accountable. Sustainability is now a key consideration in our everyday decisions across the whole business, part of guidance on good governance, business ethics, compliance, and risk management.
2. We proactively seek to reduce our carbon footprint, and we are proud to be at the forefront of the industry:
- Our EU data centers have already run entirely on renewable energy for many years.
- In 2023, we reduced our group's carbon emissions by 29% compared to 2022, while other major web hosters continued to emit up to four times more - and we’re ahead despite taking into account Scope 3 emissions, which few look at as they reveal the full scale of a business’ carbon footprint.
- We invest in projects that reduce carbon emissions, such as wind farms, a project to extract methane gas from a landfill, or a project to generate electricity from organic waste.
- We have partnered with B Corp Ecologi to improve biodiversity and offset carbon emissions, including by planting 9,170 trees across responsible reforestation projects around the world.
3. We also support our team to make more sustainable choices in their everyday lives, working to build an all-electric company car fleet, choosing trains for work travel, or providing electric bikes.
What is next in our journey? We’re committed to getting on a net-zero pathway and will be revealing our science-based targets early next year. As a complex, acquisition-driven business model, we will keep recalibrating our targets to ensure that as we grow, so does our sustainable impact.
We’re also working towards a comprehensive B-Corp certification, which will mean team.blue meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.
Taking sustainability in Tech to the next level
Looking ahead, sustainability in tech is no longer just about reducing carbon footprints. While renewable energy and carbon tracking are critical, true sustainability encompasses social impact, particularly for the 3.3 million SMBs we support. We are committed to helping SMBs not just reduce their environmental impact, but also improve their operational practices, enhance security and data privacy, create job opportunities, and drive digital innovation.
Sustainability is about empowering businesses to make conscious decisions about their impact on the environment and their communities as they grow. For team.blue, this means embedding sustainability into how we operate and constantly evolving to pioneer what sustainable businesses look like in the digital age.
We will share more in the new year, but if you’re curious about our plans going forward, find out more in our impact report.