Reimagining sustainable technology
Closing the gap between ambition and action
Delivering meaningful social impact today means going beyond the financial, connecting priorities such as sustainability and responsible technology to address increasingly complex challenges.
One of those challenges is particularly pressing.
Technology is now one of the fastest-growing sources of emissions. As organisations accelerate their use of technology and artificial intelligence, a complex question comes into focus: how can we balance innovation with environmental performance?
At Deloitte, we are helping organisations close this gap, bringing together industry leaders, applying emerging frameworks and building practical tools that turn uncertainty into clear, actionable insight.
Understanding the future impact of digital infrastructure with Cisco
The rapid growth of AI is reshaping the technology landscape in ways not yet fully understood. And with transformation across the ICT ecosystem, key questions are emerging in government and industry: how will rising demand for digital services impact energy use and emissions? And how can investment be prioritised to ensure sustainable growth?
Data centres are projected to become a major contributor to global emissions, with their electricity consumption set to double by 2030. As new ways of working develop, organisations will need a holistic, practical view of their IT footprint.
To address this, Deloitte is working with Cisco and academic partners on an initiative to develop an AI-aware IT emissions model.
This work goes beyond analysing today’s footprint. It models how energy demand and emissions across the ICT sector – from devices and networks to cloud and data centres – could evolve through 2035 across 12 global markets.
By combining available data with robust modelling, the project fills a critical gap, helping policymakers, technology providers and businesses plan for more sustainable digital growth.
Rather than providing a single answer, the model enables better-informed decisions, helping organisations explore how different technology pathways could shape future emissions.
“We’re combining industry expertise and robust modelling to help organisations make better-informed decisions, not just for today, but for the decade ahead.”
Colin Seward, Chief Sustainability Officer, Cisco
Making circularity measurable with Lenovo
The technology we all rely on is a significant contributor to our supply chain emissions. Recognising this, we partnered with Lenovo to explore how more-sustainable tech procurement decisions could be made in practice.
A key challenge was circularity, keeping products and materials in circulation through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment and recycling.
While critical to reducing waste and resource use, there has in the past been no consistent way to measure how circular a product truly is.
This lack of visibility matters. Deloitte research shows that inefficient, linear use of materials results in over €25 trillion in lost economic value annually, highlighting the scale of value that more circular, data-driven approaches can unlock.
Together, Deloitte and Lenovo applied the Global Circularity Protocol (GCP), helping translate an emerging framework into practical use. By defining a focused set of metrics, including circular inflow, circular outflow and overall material circularity (how much material is reused or recovered across a product’s lifecycle), we compared different technology procurement models, such as buying new devices, refurbishing and leasing.
This analysis revealed clear insights: refurbished devices increase the use of recycled materials, while leasing models improve end-of-life recovery. Combining the two offers the strongest circularity outcomes.
Crucially, the work showed that organisations can often begin measuring circularity using data they already hold, unlocking faster, more informed decision-making.
Building on these insights, Deloitte is now exploring how this work could inform future approaches to sustainable procurement. This includes incorporating circularity-related considerations into supplier selection processes to bring greater transparency into decision-making.
These initial steps are helping to translate insight into action, supporting the continued evolution of Deloitte’s procurement strategy and embedding sustainability more directly into everyday business decisions.
Convening for a more sustainable future
Across both initiatives, Deloitte plays a key role as a convenor, bringing together suppliers, technology leaders and academic experts to tackle challenges that no single organisation can solve alone.
From applying a global circularity framework in practice with Lenovo to co-developing forward-looking emissions models with Cisco, these collaborations are contributing to the evidence base needed to support more sustainable technology decisions.
We’re helping businesses and clients make a critical shift; progress depends not only on collaboration but on the ability to bridge information gaps, translate complexity into action and align organisations around a shared understanding of the future.
As technology continues to evolve, Deloitte is helping sustainability to keep pace, so organisations can act with confidence and make better-informed decisions in the face of uncertainty.
“Our collaboration with Deloitte has helped turn circularity into something our customers can measure and act on. Helping our customers to reduce cost and carbon through more sustainable procurement decisions.”
James Pennington, Director, Global Sustainability Solutions, Lenovo
