Gartner’s Technology Trends for 2025 – Energy-Efficient Computing as Part of Sustainability and Competitiveness

This article is the fifth and final part of a blog series on energy-efficient computing.

In October 2024, Gartner published its review of the top ten technology trends for 2025. For the first time, energy-efficient computing appeared in the report, ranking as the sixth trend.

Earlier parts of this series explored the reasons behind the growing energy consumption of IT, the distribution of energy use in software, the energy demands of AI, and recommendations for software buyers, developers, and users. This final part delves into how energy-efficient computing can be integrated into a company’s sustainability efforts and competitiveness.

IT is Responsible – in Principle

If you ask the average IT department about their sustainability practices, you’ll likely hear a confident “yes, we’re responsible.” However, in my experience, few companies can provide precise details on how sustainable they are, what actions have the most impact, or what their next steps are. Instead, they often point to partnerships with responsible vendors, asserting that their vendors have been selected with sustainability in mind.

Unfortunately, companies often lack a deep understanding of their partners’ sustainability practices, relying instead on the assurances of these vendors. This trust remains largely unshaken, even when reports emerge, such as The Guardian‘s revelation in September 2024 that actual emissions from cloud services are over 600% higher than reported estimates. Despite its implications, this news caused little stir in Finland.Similarly, the growing use of AI has undermined the carbon reduction commitments of several IT giants. For instance, Microsoft has struggled to meet its earlier promises to reduce its carbon footprint.

Sustainability Must Be Integrated into All Operations

There are no longer areas of business immune to sustainability demands. While one could bury their head in the sand and hope this trend magically disappears, this is not a winning strategy. Instead, organizations should bring sustainability into the core of their IT operations and proactively evolve—before external forces mandate such changes.

Companies should consider whether they want to be pioneers, shaping new industry practices, or followers, adapting to models developed by others. Change is inevitable and will likely be reflected in regulations and industry standards.

Examples of good practices include:

• Testing the environmental maturity of the company’s IT operations using a maturity model.

• Forming a working group of employees interested in energy efficiency.

• Fostering collaboration between IT management and sustainability teams.

• Setting and monitoring energy efficiency goals.

Leadership support is critical. Executives must commit to the transformation and at least have a surface-level understanding of the necessary changes to ensure progress is meaningful and sensible.

Can Energy Efficiency Drive Competitiveness?

Beyond improving internal operations, energy efficiency can and should be viewed as a way to enhance competitiveness. This could manifest in various ways, such as improving employer branding, gaining a technical edge over competitors, or boosting employee motivation.

However, competitiveness doesn’t happen automatically. Planned actions must genuinely contribute to competitiveness rather than being relegated to internal memos or presentations. They must also align with the company’s broader business strategy. For businesses where IT is not central, greening IT may not elevate its significance for the business but can still help minimize environmental harm.

For organizations where IT plays a pivotal role or underpins the entire business, there are clear opportunities to enhance competitiveness. One example is simplifying solutions to improve usability. This can reduce energy waste by decreasing user errors and eliminating wasted system cycles. Similarly, shortening user journeys and introducing shortcuts can reduce non-critical steps, alleviate user frustration, and save energy. Faster response times in efficient systems also matter, particularly for time-sensitive information processing and even search engine optimization.

There are countless other examples, but they all depend on the specific business context. While the ideas themselves may be broadly applicable, implementation and benefits will vary depending on the nature of the business, chosen platforms, and organizational expertise.

It’s worth considering competitiveness as a driver for sustainability efforts—it may ultimately be the best reason to implement changes that benefit the environment and the climate.

Would you like to continue the conversation about energy-efficient computing? Book a 15-minute sparring session in the calendar 👇

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