Companies of All Sizes Can Take Steps to Reduce Their Carbon Emissions
Walid Gomaa, the Acting Chief Executive Officer at Omnix International, says the key challenges companies face today in their journey towards net zero are lack of data and verifiability, economic viability, and financing
How does technology contribute to sustainability?
There is a great reliance on technology to solve environmental problems around the world today while also serving to make our lives easier. Technological advances in recent years have made sustainable living more viable than ever. There are technologies that can help in monitoring activities from connecting devices and machines and then taking action to cut down energy waste.
With certain technologies, organizations can effectively record, report, and analyze data from devices to reduce their environmental impact. In turn, it helps organizations unlock their potential and achieve their sustainability goals. In addition, technology can support substantiality initiatives in areas like alternative energy, energy storage, electrical vehicles, and precious agriculture to name a few.
What sort of sustainability efforts does your company practice? Examples: minimal/recyclable packaging, use of recycled material for devices, green energy, low energy consumption, digital products and services, and so on.
At Omnix, we are keen to create a greener and healthier sustainable workspace. We took the initiative to offer employees drinking glass containers which significantly reduced the need for paper cups. We implemented solutions and automated some of our processes to minimize the need for printed documents. We have a special focus on having a sustainable interior fit to create the base conditions in terms of energy and resource consumption, lighting, air quality, thermal comfort, and others.
Our IT team is continuously working to optimize the workload to minimize IT power consumption. In addition, by using our skilled resources, we support our customers to adopt a paperless environment, optimize their processes and infrastructure and build digital solutions to help them with their sustainability goals.
Do we need to look at sustainability beyond the use of “green energy”?
Let’s start with the definitions. Green Energy means energy that can be produced in a way that protects the natural environment, for example by using wind, water, or the sun. While Sustainable energy means; the ability to maintain energy at a certain rate/level or the avoidance of the depletion of natural resources to maintain an ecological balance. We need to look at sustainability to be able to maintain the energy for the foreseeable future without compromising or threatening future generations.
How can companies reduce their carbon footprint? Are there local or regional initiatives that encourage companies to adopt best practices?
Companies of all sizes can take steps to reduce their carbon emissions. This can be anything from implementing recycling collections all the way to actively planting trees. Examples of the ways that companies can reduce their carbon footprint:
- Use recycling at the workplace
- Invest in green energy and green office equipment
- Eliminate Single-use Plastics
- Optimize the use of IT resources
- Optimize workplace consumption of lighting, machinery, AC, and so on, using IoT devices
- Think digital footprint first
- Engage with and evaluate your supply chain
- Educate the workforce about the environment
There is a renewed focus in the Middle East to demonstrate leadership in tackling issues of climate change. This year 2022, Egypt is hosting COP27 (Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC). UAE will host COP28 next year. This yearly event discusses the critical issue of global warming, carbon emissions, and how to tackle climate change. We started to see some countries in the region taking steps in their transition to achieving net zero on their carbon emissions.
What challenges do companies face today in their journey toward net zero and how can technology help solve those issues?
The key challenges companies face today in their journey towards net zero are lack of data and verifiability, economic viability and financing, difficulty to measure their business’ environmental impact and performance, and supplier emissions data gap. Some of the most noteworthy technologies that can help in solving these challenges are digital technologies, Cloud computing, advanced monitoring equipment, and satellite technology.
