Sustainable technology is being lauded as a leading strategic technology trend for 2023. Are you ready?
Sustainable technology is a hot trend. How hot? Gartner recognized sustainable technology as one of the must-know trends in its “10 Top Strategic Technology Trends 2023” report, which is intended for an enterprise audience of business and IT leaders.
Multiple definitions of sustainable technology exist, but for this blog, it makes sense to use Gartner’s definition:
“Sustainable technology is a framework of solutions that increases the energy and material efficiency of IT services; enables enterprise sustainability through technologies like traceability, analytics, renewable energy, and others; and helps customers become more sustainable through apps, software, marketplaces, and more.”
Sustainable technology has become a leading trend for a simple reason: A growing number of consumers are more mindful of the environmental impact of the goods they purchase. Case in point: Late last year, Unibalil-Rodamco-Westfield, developer and operator of Westfield shopping centers, surveyed more than 6,500 Westfield shoppers across the U.S. and found that 90% of consumers would pay a premium for goods that meet their environmentally sustainable criteria.
This consumer-driven push for sustainability is also having an impact in the C-suite. Nearly 9 in 10 business leaders expect to boost their organization’s investment in sustainability over the next two years amid growing pressure from their customers, investors and regulators. according to Gartner’s research.
Besides the positive impact on the environment, the Gartner survey noted that business leaders said sustainability:
- Protected their organization from disruption (87%)
- Created both short- and long-term value (83%)
- Helped their organization optimize and reduce costs (80%)
Here is a handful of reasons why sustainable technology is a strategic trend that tech marketers should wholeheartedly embrace in 2023 and use to their selling advantage:
Sustainable technology is one of Gartner’s strategic technology trends that is actionable for tech marketers right now.
Gartner organizes the 10 trends into four different time frames based on the their likelihood of appearing on an organization’s road map for accelerating digital: Now, 0-1 year, 1-2 years, and 2-3 years.
Sustainable technology is one of only two trends in the Now category, which means it’s most likely relevant and top of mind to CIOs and other IT leaders today.
Increasingly, marketers of sustainable technology should find it easier to win the attention of IT leaders; by 2025, 50% of CIOs will have performance metrics tied to the sustainability of the IT organization, according to Gartner.
This means that some CIOs who might not have given sustainable tech much love might be motivated to do so in 2023. In many organizations, IT’s use of sustainable technology is now a significant component of the CIO’s performance review (usually a strong motivator).
Tech marketers can advertise a healthy percentage of their products and services as sustainable technology.
In the 2023 report, Gartner describes sustainable technology as “a framework of digital solutions that can be used to enable ESG [environmental, social, and governance] outcomes.”
That means:
- Environmental technologies: Prevent, mitigate, and adapt to risks in the natural world
- Social technologies: Improve human rights outcomes, well-being, and prosperity
- Governance technologies: Strengthen business conduct and capacity building
Using this broad definition of sustainable technology, many tech marketers should be able to demonstrate how their solutions drive efficiencies and protect resources, thus enabling ESG outcomes.
Examples of sustainability cited by Gartner include using AI-powered models to improve shipping efficiencies, using robots for recycling, and offering financial services products with carbon tracking and green finance tools.
Tech marketers should approach sustainable technology as an integral component of their go-to-market strategy and messaging.
Consumer research has shown that many people consider sustainability when they purchase goods. A recent IBM study found that consumers “are prioritizing [brands] that are sustainable, transparent and aligned with their core values when making [purchase] decisions. They’re willing to pay more, and even change their buying habits, for brands that get it right.”
Just as one-third of consumers in the IBM study prefer to purchase sustainable goods, a similar percentage of a technology buying committee’s members prefer buying sustainable technology.
Enterprises that invest in sustainable technology are highly desirable clients.
Companies that embrace sustainable technology tend to perform better than their peers. For instance, according to Accenture, companies that take the lead on ESG issues outperform financially, creating up to 2.6 times more value for shareholders than their peers.
These ESG-oriented companies are also organizations that recognize the value of being a digital leader. Hence, they’re more likely to invest in other sustainable technologies that will drive their business and IT goals—and they’re also more likely to invest in the other nine Gartner strategic technologies.
Trying to figure out your next steps? Read “How CMOs and Go-to-Market Leaders Can Impact Sustainability Initiatives” by Scott Vaughan. It expertly explores what sustainability marketing is and provides the next steps for integrating sustainability initiatives into your company.
Author bio:
Jack Rosenberger is the director of content strategy at Activate. Previously, he worked as an editor at CIO Insight, the Association for Computing Machinery, and Ziff Davis Enterprise.
