Raising the Stakes for Sustainable, AI-ready Infrastructure

Recent headlines are impossible to ignore. AI adoption is driving an enormous surge in demand for energy to power data centers and the storage systems operating within them. Energy constraints have become a primary bottleneck for data center development, with long grid connection queues and capacity backlogs.

A recent World Economic Forum report puts the scale of that challenge in stark terms: By 2028, AI alone could use over half of data center power demand and consume as much electricity a year as 22% of all U.S. households. The same report notes that sustainable AI requires collective action, including embedding sustainability into AI’s design, measurement and governance from the very start.

Responsible AI is also gaining massive global attention, driven by stricter laws and rising public concerns about the trustworthiness of AI and the impacts of AI deployments on individuals, communities, infrastructure and resources. 

All of this underscores the importance of rethinking how organizations design and operate their IT infrastructure. Organizations must balance traditional IT considerations such as performance and reliability with sustainability considerations including energy and resource efficiency, governance and accountability. By doing so, they can reduce costs, strengthen innovation and build long-term business resilience, while executing responsibly and supporting their broader sustainability goals.

Why This Year’s EcoVadis Gold Medal Matters 

Hitachi Vantara is working to meet the moment, and this latest EcoVadis Gold Medal once again provides timely validation of the progress we continue to make across our sustainability program.

EcoVadis is a globally recognized provider of business sustainability ratings, assessing companies across key areas including Environment, Labor and Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement. Hitachi Vantara is thrilled to earn yet another EcoVadis Gold Medal and report that this year:

• Our overall score increased five points year over year.
• We maintained or improved our scores across the Environmental, Labor and Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement categories.
• This places Hitachi Vantara in the top 2% of companies rated by EcoVadis.

This recognition comes at a time when it is becoming harder to maintain a top-tier EcoVadis rating as the competition among thousands of companies grows year over year. That makes this year’s improved score especially meaningful. It reflects not just a sustained commitment to responsible business practices, but demonstrated progress in a year when both expectations for and challenges to corporate sustainability are rising. While recognitions like this are encouraging, we view them as milestones rather than endpoints. They help us measure progress while reinforcing the work that still lies ahead.

Sustainable Infrastructure Is Now a Business Imperative 

Far more than minimizing energy use and carbon accounting, sustainability in the age of AI is becoming a broader infrastructure challenge that also encompasses resource use, resilience and responsible innovation within a values-driven ecosystem. As organizations scale AI and data-intensive workloads, they need technology foundations that can support growth without treating energy consumption, cost efficiency and environmental impact as separate priorities.

For many organizations, this means looking more closely at the infrastructure decisions behind AI. Where data lives, how it is accessed, how often it moves and how efficiently it is stored all have an impact on cost, performance and energy use. As AI puts more pressure on data environments, these decisions become even more important to how organizations manage growth responsibly.

As the WEF notes, sustainable AI must be a broader movement covering data collection, deployment, governance, innovation and idea generation. These activities should be directed toward ecological integrity and social justice across technology ecosystems and society.

We agree, and we continue to evolve our sustainability approach across the product life cycle, the control plane, our ecosystem and the energy sources that support our operations. We recognize that meaningful progress requires ongoing measurement, collaboration and continuous improvement.

One recent example is Hitachi Vantara’s storage manufacturing facility in Norman, Oklahoma, which was selected by the WEF as a Lighthouse facility – a designation recognizing advanced manufacturing sites using technologies such as AI and robotics – for its use of AI-driven operations as part of Hitachi’s Customer Zero initiative. The site demonstrates how AI can help improve operational efficiency, strengthen supply chain resilience and support emissions reduction efforts when paired with thoughtful process improvements and operational discipline.

That work shows up in practical ways across the infrastructure stack. More efficient storage systems, better data management, greater visibility and smarter use of automation can help organizations reduce waste, improve utilization and avoid unnecessary complexity. Just as importantly, these capabilities can help make sustainability part of everyday IT decision-making, rather than something measured only after the fact.

Our storage portfolio is designed to help customers improve performance while enabling more efficient use of infrastructure. Depending on deployment and workload, these capabilities can contribute to lower power consumption, improved utilization and progress toward customers' own sustainability goals. These innovations highlight the role data infrastructure can play in helping organizations pursue sustainability and business outcomes together.

Making Sustainable AI Practical

For Hitachi Vantara, this work reflects a long-standing belief that technology should create value for both business and society. In the age of AI, this matters more than ever.

Making sustainable AI practical starts with giving organizations the tools and infrastructure to manage data more efficiently from the beginning. As data volumes grow and AI workloads become more distributed, businesses need to know where their data is, how it is being used and how to support new workloads without adding unnecessary cost or energy consumption, while doing so responsibly. 

Hitachi Vantara and Hitachi Ltd. remain committed to advancing sustainability because we believe responsible innovation creates long-term value for our customers, our business and the communities we serve. By helping customers improve operational efficiency while continuing to innovate, we aim to support both business performance and broader sustainability objectives. 

As AI continues to reshape how organizations use data, sustainable infrastructure will become even more important to how they innovate, manage growth, control costs and build resilience. Our latest EcoVadis Gold Medal is a strong reminder that meaningful progress is possible, even as we recognize that sustainability is an ongoing journey that requires disciplined execution, commitment and focus on a future that benefits all stakeholders. 

Learn more about Hitachi Vantara’s advancements in energy-efficient infrastructure, including innovations across Hitachi Vantara’s Virtual Storage Platform One (VSP One) data platform, in the FY25 Sustainability Report.