Accenture's "Uniting technology and Sustainability" report detailed numerous challenges businesses face when trying to practice sustainability. The main three challenges that most enterprises are currently struggling with are the following:
Handling the complexity of legacy solutions
Research shows that 33% of businesses are struggling with the complexity of solutions or with making their legacy systems sustainable.
For example, many CIOs don't know how much electricity their IT systems consume due to the fact that the electricity bill comes out of the facilities management team's budget (a legacy system).
Lack of awareness
About 20% of those surveyed weren't aware of the unintended consequences of technology or if the technology they used was even sustainable in the first place.
It takes a lot of commitment and communication from all aspects of a business for sustainability to work, and if the main contributors have chosen to have a culture of neglect and lack of awareness, this will lead to unmet sustainability goals.
Lack of standards and solutions to lead sustainable tech initiatives
The report highlighted that 40% of surveyed respondents believed that the right solutions aren't available or ready for use yet, including the availability of the right talent to lead these initiatives. Skill shortage and training is also major concern.
