Cloud Computing and Sustainability for Finance

Modern banking makes the world go round. Billions of purchases are made easier each day thanks to modern technology. Yet modern financial services may come with a hidden fee: carbon emissions. Sustainability is becoming one of the most important topics for financial consumers today. 60% of consumers are more likely to purchase sustainable services, and a majority of banks see environmental concerns as an emerging risk in the near future. Most business executives want to bring change to their companies, but many are unsure how to make a difference in sustainability initiatives.

Let cloud computing be part of the solution. The cloud can help reduce greenhouse gas in a variety of ways. Cloud centers are more efficient with energy than their on-premise counterparts. High carbon physical machines can be replaced with their virtual equivalents in the cloud, using less energy to do the same thing. The cloud can also offer a degree of flexibility that lets the same electronic devices be used for more purposes, lowering the consumption of resources. The cloud can enable a circular economy that keeps e-waste out of the landfill either through diversion or refurbishment.

To compound the benefits of cloud computing, set up your cloud data center on a clean energy grid. Choosing locations strategically can bring down emissions even more. Take Google as an example: in 2020, Google achieved 67% round-the-clock carbon free energy across all their data centers. As a company, Google Cloud is working towards 24/7 carbon-free energy by year 2030.