Challenges come with any breakthrough technology and the environmental footprint of AI is already a topic the industry is working to address. Training and running large AI models and workloads comsume energy and resources and this presents a difficult decision for businesses who seek to embrace this revolutionary technology and meet their environmental sustainability commitments. From our vantage point, neither of these commitments is slowing down.

In May 2023, * Gartner® stated in its 2023 CEO Survey: Grow Through Digitally Enabled Sustainability, (produced by Kristin Moyer and Mark Raskino, May 19, 2023): “most CEOs (94%) will increase or hold sustainability and ESG investments at similar levels to 2022.”¹ Then the spotlight shifted to AI and its enormous potential to drive efficiency in organizations. Dell Technologies research found that currently, 76% of IT decision-makers plan to increase their budgets to support GenAI use cases and 78% are excited about how an investment in AI can benefit their organizations.

While investing in sustainability and energy-intensive technology appears to be at odds with one another, investing in sustainability and AI does not have to be an ‘either/or’ decision. Technological progress is a prerequisite for companies seeking to meet ambitious climate goals. The best innovations can – and should – do both: advance our technological capacity while supporting more energy-efficient and sustainable futures.

There are smart and sustainable technology investments and practices to reduce the environmental footprint of AI, while, at the same time, allowing us to leverage AI to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges. Sustainability is integral to the success of AI technology and vice versa.

While AI requires significant compute power, it currently represents a small fraction of IT’s global energy consumption. We expect this will change as more companies, governments and organizations harness AI to drive efficiency and productivity across their operations and teams.

To manage and even offset AI’s growing carbon footprint, greater control over data centre energy consumption is increasingly becoming a top priority. According to **IDC in its Which Circularity Criteria Are Driving IT Planning and Procurement?, report, May 2023, the number one sustainability priority for IT planning and procurement among IT decision-makers is reducing data centre energy consumption.

These practical solutions can help make this priority a reality:

Minimize AI’s carbon footprint through modern, energy-efficient servers and storage devices and environmentally responsible cooling methods, while powering data centres with renewable energy. Use PCs and other hardware that deliver energy efficiency and include sustainable materials, such as recycled, ocean-bound or bio-based plastics, low-carbon emissions aluminium, closed-loop materials and recycled packaging.