In 2024, digital decarbonisation went from a niche conversation to a critical business priority. With increasing regulatory pressure, corporate net-zero commitments, and the stark reality of IT’s growing carbon footprint, organisations had to move beyond vague sustainability goals and start delivering measurable carbon reduction in enterprise technology.
At GoCodeGreen (GCG), we’ve been at the forefront of this shift. Our data-driven measurement frameworks helped major enterprises reduce emissions and improve operational efficiency across their ICT estates. This year, we worked with global leaders across finance, government, technology, healthcare, and charity to embed green software principles into IT decision-making, unlocking double-digit reductions in carbon impact and cost savings.
Reducing IT Carbon Footprint: Real Business Impact Across Industries
Core IT and Cloud Efficiency Focus
- A global banking software provider partnered with GCG over 3 years to assess its Transact core banking platform using our CEDAR™ software lifecycle assessment. By 2024, the company reaped the rewards of its commitment by reducing the overall carbon impact of their product by 50%. This is reflected in cost savings of over £20k from optimising sustainable software engineering practices and implementing a full cloud transformation.
- A leading professional services firm took a pioneering approach to reducing IT’s carbon footprint by measuring and optimising its enterprise-wide technology footprint. With our ATLAS™ software screening and five CEDAR™ assessments, they completed a first-to-market full coverage digital carbon assessment in which GCG identified a 40% emissions reduction opportunity. The firm also set a 25% annual Scope 3 reduction target, underpinned by our Digital Carbon Reduction Plan (DCRP™).
- A major UK charity engaged GCG to assess the digital sustainability of its new web platform. By optimising cloud CPU usage, upgrading to energy-efficient processors, and considering serverless architecture, we uncovered a 15.6% carbon reduction opportunity while improving operational resilience.
Green Software and AI Optimisation
- A global learning platform serving 500,000+ users worked with us to identify a 19% carbon reduction opportunity and 21% cost savings through sustainable cloud computing, optimised software power consumption, and smarter data management, saving 31.8 tCO2e per annum.
- GCG partnered with a leading digital payments provider to assess its secure online payments platform. We found a 13.1% emissions reduction potential, identifying key efficiencies in software power consumption, logging, and computational accuracy – critical for high-performance fintech solutions.
- A national charity partnered with GCG to assess its AI-powered employee well-being dashboard. We identified key areas for energy efficiency improvements and optimised data processing, leading to a more sustainable AI model without compromising performance.
Public Sector and Sustainable IT for Social Impact
- A government agency partnered with us to decarbonise its digital services platform for export management. Our assessment uncovered a 14% emissions reduction opportunity and 20% cost savings, with the largest gains found in desktop compute efficiency and optimised cloud infrastructure.
- A government technology supplier integrated GCG’s CEDAR™ assessment and Sustainable Software Engineering training to measure the impact of its case management platform. The outcome? 24% emissions reduction potential equating to 55.6 tCO2e per annum and 20% cost savings, alongside an upskilled engineering team ready to embed green software principles in future builds.
- The government healthcare agency partnered with GCG to assess and enhance the energy efficiency of its secure digital communications platform. Our CEDAR™ assessment identified a 9.6% carbon reduction opportunity based on actions that increase engineering productivity and resource efficiency, optimising network resources, and compute location choices. This is an estimated reduction opportunity of 49.15 tCO2e per annum.
Across all clients measured in 2024, GCG identified a total carbon reduction opportunity of 206 tCO2e per year, an average 14.3% decrease in digital carbon impact. This unlocked an average cost-saving potential of 20%, demonstrating sustainable IT not only cuts emissions but is a driver of operational efficiency.
Why Sustainable IT is Now a Business Imperative
For many of our clients, these assessments weren’t just about reducing IT’s carbon footprint – they delivered tangible business benefits. From reduced cloud costs and improved engineering productivity to stronger ESG credentials for investor and customer confidence. Digital sustainability is now a strategic differentiator.
That’s why Gartner recognised GoCodeGreen as a 2024 Cool Vendor, an acknowledgement given to companies driving real innovation in sustainable IT. And we’re not stopping there. This year, we became a member of the Government Digital Sustainability Alliance (GDSA), reinforcing our role in shaping public sector digital decarbonisation. Our CEO and Founder is also working with the ITU and TechUK, driving global conversations on technology and sustainability.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Sustainable IT in 2025
The momentum for measurable, actionable carbon reduction in enterprise technology is only accelerating. This can’t come soon enough, with the fast growing adoption of Generative AI, we are already seeing headlines about electricity grids creaking, large vendors re sparking old nuclear reactors to power data centres etc… With some predicting that we may need 8x more electricity than we currently produce globally to power AI. As we move into 2025, GCG remains committed to helping organisations take control of their digital carbon footprint – turning sustainability from a challenge into an opportunity.
