Environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics continue popping up in the core technology industries we cover at SDxCentral. In the past year, our editorial staff has investigated diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) policies at top tech companies; launched a new series rating technology providers on environmental sustainability (stay tuned early next year to catch SDxCentral’s ESG scorecard for the telecom industry); and covered significant gains in data center and telecom network hardware efficiency.

And as high-performance artificial intelligence (AI) workloads continue to heat up the data center industry — literally and figuratively — sustainability will continue to be an integral part of innovation for the cloud, data centers,  networks, AI systems, 5G and radio access networks (RAN).

But before looking too far ahead, let’s take a moment to recognize the ESG progress (and lack thereof) in 2023. These are the top 10 sustainability stories we covered this year, based on aggregate pageviews.

Layoffs have recently become common in the tech industry. Topping the list of companies making cuts are hyperscalers such as  Amazon, Microsoft and Google — all announcing thousands of job cuts within weeks of each other — followed closely by IBM, Dell and SAP.

With simultaneous investments in AI, some companies point fingers at automation as the reason to cut tech jobs, but research indicates most of the layoffs are centered around HR, recruitment, and DE&I roles.

The firing frenzy not only opens the door for cyberattackers, but it also threatens key efforts in DE&I and recruiting practices — just as the talent shortage reached a 16-year high in 2022, according to ManpowerGroup.

Hyperscalers Google, Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are involved in an arms race to cover more ground, offer more territories with higher availability and deliver a wider range of low-latency services. As a result, they are building new data centers, leasing many more and expanding into new territories — all of which contributes to their environmental impacts.

Sustainability is a major factor that may be destined to upset the apple cart over the next few years. Just about every press release from Equinix, for example, discusses climate neutrality and achieving net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Pressure is growing from regulators, corporate executives, data center customers and local environmental groups to greatly reduce power consumption from data centers and raise their level of environmental responsibility. Those that make the most progress are likely to gain ground.

“Sustainability is becoming an important issue, having implications not only on enterprises but also on their entire supply chain,” IDC analyst William Lee said. “The data center industry is increasingly facing pressure from stakeholders, such as regulators and investors, to make operations more sustainable.”

Environmental sustainability has become a top 10 enterprise priority for CEOs, according to Gartner research. But to some technologists, that’s obvious even without the press releases. As global businesses digitally transform, IT vendors grow increasingly aware of the pressure to operate with their environmental impacts in mind.

Gartner analysts predict that by 2026, 75% of organizations will increase the amount of business they do with IT vendors that are focused on specific ESG goals “and will seek to replace vendors” that don’t demonstrate sustainability progress.

Keep reading for a rundown of where some of the ecosystem’s biggest players stand in terms of their climate impact and environmental ambitions.

Intel officially unveiled its latest data center chip powerhouse that includes a stronger focus on supporting 5G, edge and virtualized radio access network (vRAN) deployments. The oft-delayed platform was initially expected to launch in early 2022.

The 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor platform, also known as Sapphire Rapids, includes the usual host of eye-watering performance improvement numbers expected of any new anything. Specifically, Intel noted performance gains targeted at supporting AI workloads, high-performance computing (HPC), security, networking, analytics and storage.

These performance gains also support Intel’s telecom customers who are increasingly looking to improve the efficiency of their 5G, edge and vRAN deployments.

Dan Rodriguez, corporate VP and GM for Intel’s Network and Edge Group, in a pre-recorded video interview on the product release, explained the new chip series provides double the vRAN capacity compared to the previous generation chip series at the same power levels. He noted this will help operators better meet their sustainability goals.

Let’s face facts: People are attached to their mobile devices, by one estimate spending one-third of their waking hours glued to handheld computers.

But while each phone or device upgrade provides new capabilities and faster speeds, it comes at a significant sustainability cost for telco providers. One study reports that telecommunications operators account for 2% to 3% of total global energy demand.

To help reverse this trend, Red Hat announced at its Red Hat summit this week a partnership with Intel and Ericsson to achieve 20% power savings in RAN.

Cisco announced the expansion of its Unified Computing System (UCS) portfolio in January that added new rack servers and modular compute nodes powered by Intel’s 4th Gen Xeon Scalable processors.

Intel in tandem introduced its data center chip Sapphire Rapids. The chipmaker touted the performance improvements supporting AI workloads, HPC, security, networking, analytics and storage.

Powered by the Sapphire Rapids chip, Cisco’s 7th Gen UCS X-Series and C-Series servers are designed to modernize the compute infrastructure for data centers with sustainability benefits, the networking vendor boasted.

Corporate sustainability wasn’t as important to top-level executives in 2023 as it was in 2022, according to the results of a Google Cloud Sustainability Survey.

The research found global executives place ESG efforts as their third most important business priority. That represents a change from 2022's survey, which identified ESG as executives’ No. 1 organizational concern.

The survey also found a majority (59%) of global executives admit they overstate or inaccurately represent their organization’s sustainability efforts. Google Cloud describes this “pervasive concern” as “corporate greenwashing” or “green hypocrisy,” and the research found most executives view this hypocrisy as accidental.

In addition, nearly 75% of executives agree a majority of companies in their industry would be caught greenwashing if they were “thoroughly investigated,” which further highlights the popularity of this tactic.

Digital transformation is lauded as a planet-saving measure thanks to hyperscale cloud providers‘ scalable infrastructure and history of eco-conscious messaging. But what type of impact do AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure have on the environment?

As ESG regulations continue to evolve, enterprises of all sizes are striving to work with cloud providers that maximize the benefits of moving to the cloud and accurately market their environmental impact. Whether it’s the corporate buzz around sustainability or the record-breaking heatwave that piqued your interest in this topic, it’s clear that hyperscale cloud technology will play an integral role in the future trajectory of climate change.

Environmental impact can be a highly subjective arena, so we’re narrowing our scope to focus on Amazon, Google and Microsoft’s sustainability targets, annual emissions totals, included emissions categories, legacy emissions strategy, renewable energy stature and data center power use efficiency (PUE).

Read the full report to see how your cloud provider ranks.

Google Cloud introduced two new startup accelerators focused on climate solutions in a move to make 2023 the year technology will “unblock and accelerate decarbonization of the economy,” Justin Keeble, Google Cloud managing director for global sustainability, and Adam Elman, head of sustainability for Google Cloud EMEA, wrote in a blog.

Sustainability-driven business decisions are crucial for organizations to successfully navigate increasing stakeholder pressure and the tangible effects of climate change. Since startups tend to be unburdened by government regulation or the opinions of investors and public shareholders that larger enterprises like Google deal with, that startup ecosystem “plays a pivotal role” in supporting larger enterprise progress toward sustainable business operations, the executives explained.

The two new programs, focused on North America and Europe and Israel, will identify, support and scale startups building technology that addresses climate change. Accepted startups will be matched with Google Cloud’s network of experts for advice, mentorship and support throughout a variety of subjects and domains. The accelerators, however, will focus mainly on cloud technology, AI and machine learning (ML) with the goal of advancing young startups’ businesses and tech.

It’s no secret the data center industry consumes significantly more energy than traditional built environments. But rising energy costs, stakeholder pressures and technological innovation are driving data centers toward greener pastures — with some analysts projecting that three-quarters of IT organizations will implement data center infrastructure sustainability initiatives by 2027.

That figure represents a substantial increase from less than 5% of IT organizations with data center sustainability programs in 2022, according to Gartner research. In addition to the obvious benefits of greener data centers (lower energy costs, less downtime and a smaller carbon footprint), indirect impacts of sustainability programs include broader cost reductions, new and innovative products and improved risk management and mitigation, Gartner’s report noted.