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Achieving Global Best Practice in ICT Sustainability

Fujitsu Australia & New Zealand (FANZ), Sustainability Solutions

Lee Stewart Head of Sustainability, Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand

Abstract: Energy is a cost and impost on all businesses, the environment, society and individuals. The question for

CIO’s in Australia and New Zealand is why does only 1 in 15 understand fully the energy impacts of operating their

ICT? In Australia and New Zealand Fujitsu manages over 500,000 ICT assets which have a power and cooling bill of

over $42M per year. The environmental impact is over 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) which is

equal to the impact of 13,600 homes. Addressing this unsustainable problem facing CIOs and reducing the impact of

ICT requires a robust and pragmatic approach that distils credible and relevant information to the CIO and his or her

team. With knowledge comes power to affect change. Our proven approach to empowering CIOs involves the use of

benchmarking analysis, framework and developed IP mixed with targeted messaging and engagement strategies.

Enabling all our customers in Australia and New Zealand to achieve global best practice in ICT Sustainability via our

established framework can deliver benefit dividends of up to $16M in energy cost reductions and an emission

reduction of 60,000 tonnes of CO2e. Our goal as a global ICT leader should be to work with all customers to educate

them on the importance of taking ownership of the impacts of ICT and lead them towards global best practice,

reinforcing our fundamental belief that sustainability is good for business and that innovative ICT will enable us

to create a prosperous, low-carbon future.

Keywords: ICT Sustainability, Framework, Messaging, Speed Thinking

1. Preface

1.1 Current Situation

Currently FANZ manages over 500,000 ICT assets on

behalf of our customers. This asset portfolio requires

them to invest in excess of $42M annually to power

and is responsible for approximately 150,000 tonnes of

carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) pollution per year

which is equal to the emissions of over 13,600 average

homes. CO2e is a green-house gas and major

contributor to global warming. If our customers were

to achieve global best practice in ICT Sustainability

they would achieve up to 40% savings on their ICT

energy bill which could exceed $16M per year. The

collective environmental benefit would be reducing

emissions by 60,000 tonnes of C02e, a benefit equal to

80% of the total annual emissions produced by FANZ.

In the 2012 Fujitsu ICT Sustainability Index (ITSx)

the average score by organisations assessed across the

eight countries included in the study was 53.1. With a

score of 80 plus identified by The Royal Melbourne

Institute of Technology and partners Connection

Research as global best practice; the ICT industry as a

whole still has a lot of work to do. This paper

examines what it takes to achieve global best practice

and how organisations can move from an average

score to best in class in the space of 12 months.

1.1 Key Subjects

The key subjects covered in this paper include; ICT

Sustainability Benchmarking, the Fujitsu ICT

Sustainability Framework, gaining Executive

Engagement, Strategic Alignment, conducting

Innovative Workshops and the Business Language of

Sustainability.

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1.2 The Approach Taken

The insights presented in this paper are empirical

findings drawn from client engagements where we

have delivered ICT Sustainability consulting services

using a consistent methodology based upon the ITSx

Benchmarking Tools. The key findings of this report

have been drawn from engagements with Meridian

Energy in New Zealand and Qantas Airways,

Australia’s National Airline. Both organisations have

a strong commitment to sustainability and share a

similar ethos and philosophy with Fujitsu. A common

challenge faced by ICT leaders within our clients is

how to determine whether the ICT department is

doing a good job in terms of sustainability and being

able to objectively answer questions such as:

What were our key areas of strengths and

weaknesses?

How do we compare to similar sized companies

both locally and globally?

What is considered best practice for us?, and

What do we need to do to get there?

2. Benchmarking Methodology

By using the ITSx benchmarking methodology,

tailored stakeholder surveys and our growing

knowledge base of learning’s we can determine the

level of ICT Sustainability Maturity within

organisations. The overall framework incorporates

attitudes, policies, practices, and technologies as

outlined below.

Fig.1 ICT Sustainability Benchmarking Framework

The survey involves targeted users answering 60

questions and 6 to 8 key stakeholder interviews

(dependent on organizational size and stakeholder

availability). What is important is to ensure

stakeholder interviews include representation from

Environment or Sustainability, Procurement, HR and

Finance leadership so insights are not limited to or

influenced by potentially insular ICT worker

view-points. The interview process itself is also a

unique engagement tool as it usually sparks

discussion and comments about what can and should

be done in the organisation. Once all the interviews

are completed the scores are then assessed via the

benchmark framework and then individual ratings

between 0 – 100 are given across the five key areas of:

1. Equipment Lifecycle

2. End User Computing

3. Enterprise and Data Centre

4. ICT as a Low-Carbon Enabler

5. Metrics

The organisation is then given a single ITSx score

based on the cumulative assessment of the five.

Further analysis is done to identify key strengths and

weaknesses, along with a list of short and long term

recommendations.

3. Taking a Different Approach

In the case of Meridian Energy an above average ITSx

score of 60.1 was achieved which was good for the

industry but below the best practice score of 80. Being

a 100% renewable energy company and sustainability

being a part of organisational DNA, we knew this

result would be disappointing to the CIO and the ICT

organisational as a whole. As a result of the

relationships built with key stakeholders over the

engagement a decision was taken to innovate our

engagement model rather than simply delivering on

our required engagement outputs which we knew

would leave the CIO with questions to answer. The

innovation consisted of investing to develop an

internal communications plan and message for the

ICT team. This plan focused on the following key

areas:

Highlighting the areas of weakness

Drafting a results chain roadmap which

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maps out the pathway towards global best

practice

Documenting the key points, activities that

link to the existing framework which can

guide Meridian

Using subtle messages that global best

practice was achievable with most of the

recommendations being policy driven and

requiring very little capital expenditure.

By planning out the key messages and literally

putting ourselves in the shoes of the CIO, and the

organisation as a whole, we were able to accurately

empathise with the customer’s sustainability goals

and deliver a strong message that turned potential

disappointment into a substantive positive outcome

with an addressable action plan to enable the

organisational target-state for sustainability to be

achieved. As a result of the thought-leadership

demonstrated, the CIO had the confidence to make a

commitment to achieve global best practice within the

next 12 months. This was also documented in their

2012 Annual Report and was later included in the

KPI’s of a number of key ICT staff.

4. Innovative Workshops

Momentum is critical and to follow up the

commitment to improve an organisation’s ITSx score

it is important to facilitate a workshop to identify the

projects, work packages and roles and responsibilities

within the team. For Meridian a one day workshop

was conducted in mid 2012 where we tested a number

of new techniques and also utilised ITIL tools such as

the RACI model which determines who is Responsible,

Accountable, Consulted and Informed as well as

existing organisational project management processes.

The key differentiator in this workshop was using a

new technique called “Speed Thinking”. The system

developed by Dr Ken Hudson is best described as:

“A generative thinking system that enables

individuals or groups to improve and accelerate the

pace at which they create, solve, decide an act”.

The system consists of a two minute and 9 possibility

structure which is shown below.

Figure 2: Speedlinks Worksheet

You have 2 minutes to get up to nine ideas down for

any set problem, question or idea. As there is always a

great deal of information and bias to navigate through

in a one day workshop the speed thinking technique is

extremely valuable in getting all key ideas out and

prioritised with group consensus.

For each of the five sections mentioned in the

benchmarking methodology the results of all were

presented to the group and a discussion was

facilitated on what is best practice. Following that

discussion the following simple three step process was

run using a combination of speed thinking, group

consensus and the ITIL model (RACI).

Fig.3: Three Step Workshop Process

At the end of the one day workshop the customer’s

team has identified key projects that all have

responsible stakeholders identified across RACI and

the relevant supporting network determined.

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To close out the workshop three final speed thinking

exercises are put to the group based on the following

questions:

What are the key blockages to you achieving

global best practice?

What are the key success factors?

What would Achieving Global Best Practice

do for you and the organisation?

By finishing up the one day workshop with everyone

in the room having knowledge of the key blockages,

knowing the critical success factors, and being able to

visualise success not only built a strong vision and

direction but also embedded a strong emotional

attachment to success.

A benefit of building such as an emotive connection

with the workshop stakeholders is that a greater level

of insights are shared establishing us as a trusted

advisor and deemed a critical stakeholder to the

organisational realising its sustainability objectives.

This role establishes an on-going opportunity for

delivering value-add services.

Feedback from the one day workshops typically

received satisfaction ratings in excess of 80% with

much of the credit being able to be attributed to the

use of the Speed Thinking System.

5. Using a Framework to Embed a Sustainability

Culture

The Fujitsu ICT Sustainability Framework was

originally developed in 2007 by Alison Rowe who is

now the Global Executive Director Sustainability. It is

an extremely effective tool that is continuously tested

and evolved with the learning’s of each engagement

delivered. Currently the framework was delivered in

five distinct phases as shown below:

Fig.4 Fujitsu ICT Sustainability Framework

From the recent experience at Meridian, supported by

engagements with Qantas, it is recommended that

the framework undergoes the following

enhancements:

Include the global benchmarking survey into

the Strategic Alignment Phase

Combine the areas of strategic alignment and

IT Assessment into one core activity

Include developing specific internal

messaging as a core deliverable

Before progressing to the strategy

development phase an intimate

understanding of the drivers influencing the

following is gained:

o ITSx Score

o ICT Energy Spend

o ICT Emissions

Strategy Development includes a workshop

that uses “Speed Thinking” and the RACI

model

6. Applying the Lessons Learnt

Qantas is a major Fujitsu customer that has gone

through the benchmarking and framework process. A

presentation was made to the CIO recently and the

team was able to present three key numbers:

56.2 (ITSx Score)

$1.9M (Annual energy spend)

15,000 (Annual CO2e emissions from ICT)

By having tangible numbers for Qantas sustainability

metrics, background experience and learning’s from

Meridian we were able to succinctly articulate to the

Qantas CIO the key benefits of achieving global best

practice which will result in an estimated $200,000

energy savings per year and reduction of 3,000 tonnes

of CO2e. By also engaging stakeholders outside of ICT

and meeting with the Head of Environment we were

able to directly link a successful ICT Sustainability

Program to the Qantas Environmental targets and

articulate how the program will support the

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organisations non-negotiable core principle of

environmental sustainability.

The result was in a 20 minute presentation to the CIO

we were able to get his agreement on setting the goal

of global best practice for the upcoming financial year.

7. What does Global Best Practice Look Like?

In June 2013, 12 months after the initial commitment

made by Meridian Energy to achieve global best

practice we re-conducted the benchmarking

assessment on the same group of people.

Along with the usual questions I asked how the

program was going? And what worked well?

The CIO provided some key insights into how the

program has been going and attributed the progress

to three key factors:

They had an internal champion who drove

the project and kept it on the teams agenda

Everyone understood their role and

responsibilities from the workshop

The success of the ICT Sustainability

program was incorporated into staff

objectives and was part of their KPI’s

Meridian Energy has now achieved global best

practice and along with the CIO comments the

following attributes are the key factors to their

success:

Regular project meetings

Sustainability is a standard agenda item on

monthly team meetings

Developed a Green IT Policy that is well

communicated and advertised both internally

and to key suppliers

Include an environmental officer on their

procurement panel

Incorporated global energy efficiency

standards into their ICT procurement process

Included sustainability governance into all ICT

projects

Know their ICT energy use and are piloting power

management software

Have strong staff engagement and executive support

8. Conclusion

Credible and robust data with effective broad

stakeholder engagement are key to building a

successful ICT Sustainability Strategy. The

foundation of the strategy is the benchmarking

assessment and this is supported by making four

other suggested changes to the Fujitsu ICT

Sustainability Framework which include; combining

strategic alignment and IT assessment into one core

activity; internal messaging; the three key numbers of

the ITSx Score, ICT Energy Use and Emissions;

innovative workshops incorporating speed thinking

and the RACI model.

Additional client engagements are required to

continue the validation of this theory and evolution of

our ITSx framework and methodology. The true

validation and measure on the effectiveness of our

approach should be in the number of clients reaching

global best practice and an increase in future ITSx

Index scores. Qantas will be the next organisation

where we will re-validate this theory and as with each

client engagement we are fine tuning the framework

and our approach. More research is also required to

support companies beyond reaching best practice and

the next practical steps and areas to focus on them

being truly sustainable organisations.

Overall the opportunities for us to continually add

value to our customers using our ICT Sustainability

Framework are immense. Not only does this provide a

unique opportunity to improve our customers bottom

line it also builds significant brand recognition and

directly links to our corporate philosophy of building a

prosperous, low carbon future with our customers.

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Reference

[1] Peter Senge, 2010, The Necessary Revolution, Nicholas Brealey

Publishing, Pages 102,103,263 & 264

[2] Eric Lowitt, 2011, The Future of Value, Jossey-Bass A Wiley

Imprint, Pages 28,29 & 71-76

[3] Lawrence Webber & Michael Wallace, 2009, Green Tech, How to

Plan and Implement Sustainable ICT Solutions, AMACOM,

Pages 29 & 30

[4] Dr Ken Hudson, 2010, Speed Thinking, Allen & Unwin, Pages

3,4,5,96 & 98

[5] Luis Neves & Mike Bereners-Lee; Dec 2012, SMARTer2020:

The Role of ICT in Driving a Sustainable Future, Version, Global

e-sustainability Initiative (GeSI), page 20, 21 , 23

[6] Eliot Metzger, Samantha Putt Del Pino, Sally Prowitt, Jenna

Goodward, Alexander Perera, 2012, sSWOT A Sustainability

SWOT, World Resources Institute, Pages 18 & 19

Appendix

ICT Sustainability, The Global Benchmark Report 2012, Fujitsu

and Connection Research, Foreword by Alison Rowe

ICT Sustainability, The Global Benchmark Report 2011, Fujitsu

and Connection Research, Foreword by Alison Rowe

Fujitsu Cloud Sustainability – Is The Cloud Green – Whitepaper,

Alison Rowe, Andy Lewis, Chris Flanagan