Every business is talking about sustainability but for many small and mid-sized organisations, “sustainable IT” still feels out of reach. It’s either too technical, too vague, or too disconnected from the day-to-day realities of running a business.
But here’s the truth: your digital footprint is now one of the biggest drivers of your environmental footprint.
Whether you’re running a professional services firm, scaling an education business, or building on Salesforce, the choices you make about your tech stack directly affect both your emissions and your operating costs.
The good news? Sustainable IT isn’t complicated. And it doesn’t require a dedicated sustainability team. With the right architecture decisions, you can reduce waste, cut costs, and build a digital foundation that’s ready for the future.
Why Sustainable IT Matters
Digital operations are quietly becoming one of the largest contributors to organisational emissions. Cloud usage, data storage, duplicated systems, inefficient integrations, and manual-heavy processes all add up, not just in carbon, but in cost and complexity.
Three major shifts are making sustainable IT a strategic priority:
First, cloud consumption is exploding. Most businesses over-provision compute capacity, storage, and data services. Sustainable IT means scaling intelligently, using only what you need, and designing for efficiency from day one.
Second, fragmented systems create waste. Multiple CRMs, spreadsheets, legacy apps, and custom tools don’t just slow teams down, they burn more energy. Consolidating systems is one of the fastest ways to reduce both emissions and cost.
Third, AI demands responsible architecture. While AI delivers enormous value, it also increases compute load. Businesses that adopt AI without a sustainability lens risk building up both technical debt and carbon debt.
A Practical Framework for SMEs
Sustainable IT isn’t about perfection. It’s about smart, incremental improvements. At Komet Advisory, we help clients take action through five practical steps:
Start by consolidating your systems. Fewer platforms mean less duplication, fewer servers running, and fewer integrations to maintain. Centralising on platforms like Salesforce materially lowers your footprint while improving visibility and control.
Next, design for efficiency. That means building scalable automations, avoiding unnecessary custom code, choosing lighter workflows, and reducing long-running processes that quietly consume resources.
Then, modernise your integrations. Batch jobs and heavy exports are compute-intensive and outdated. API-driven integrations are cleaner, lighter, and far more efficient.
Fourth, automate manual processes. Manual work slows teams down and increases digital complexity. Responsible automation, especially when paired with AI, reduces both operational and environmental costs.
Finally, clean up your data. Most businesses store far more than they need: outdated files, inactive records, redundant versions, and unnecessary backups. Data hygiene is one of the quickest wins for sustainability.
The Business Case: Sustainability That Pays Off
Sustainable IT isn’t just ethical — it’s commercial. The benefits are tangible:
- Lower cloud resource consumption
- Reduced software licensing costs
- Faster system performance
- Less tech maintenance overhead
- Reduced operational risk
- Greater future scalability
In short, sustainability saves money — and builds resilience.
Why Salesforce Is Part of the Solution
Salesforce’s architecture is built for efficiency. By centralising customer data, automation, and reporting on a single platform, you reduce your digital sprawl — and your emissions. It’s not just a CRM. It’s a sustainability enabler.
One Decision Can Change Your Digital Footprint
You don’t need a multi-year ESG strategy to start. Sustainable IT begins with your next architecture decision and compounds from there.
If you’re ready to modernise your systems, reduce waste, and build a digital foundation that’s efficient, scalable, and future-ready, we’d love to help.
Komet Advisory’s Approach: Sustainable by Design
Our clients don’t come to us asking for sustainability consulting. They come to modernise, simplify, and scale. But when you make better architecture decisions, streamline operations, and use cloud resources responsibly, sustainability becomes a natural outcome.
We don’t bolt it on. We build it in.
Komet Advisory. Digital. Practical. Human.