Sustainability from the Boardroom to the Control Plane

The definition of sustainability is being re-written in the age of AI.

Yes, the current discourse that focuses on green IT considerations, including resource efficiency, carbon accounting and water use, is necessary. But it is incomplete.

Sustainability in the age of AI implies sustaining the long-term flourishing of people, businesses, societies, and planetary systems together, not just minimizing energy use or carbon.

In fact, influential voices like the World Economic Forum are making the argument today that “sustainable AI” needs to be seen as a broader movement covering the entire socio-technical system: from innovation and idea generation to data collection, training, deployment, and governance, all directed towards ecological integrity and social justice.

This view is based on a reality that we are seeing play out before our eyes: the fact that both the benefits and potential costs of AI are unevenly distributed. The benefits accrue at the top, but the environmental burdens and social harms are often dispersed to the broader base of society, often to externalized and marginalized communities.

All of this makes sustainability occupy a unique and urgent part of the conversation today. It is a complex environment to navigate, with several intersecting considerations:

1. Power as AI’s bottleneck: 

Power availability has become the binding constraint on new AI capacity. Data center siting, architectures, and green IT roadmaps are now having to prioritize grid access, onsite generation, and efficiency upgrades over nearly everything else. Even as renewables and advanced cooling grow in importance, the short-term reliance on fossil-based backup and the stresses on the grid directly confront net-zero and sustainability targets.

2. Geopolitics and supply chains:

International tensions and geopolitical shocks are creating supply chain disruptions and further exacerbating existing industry challenges around delays, cost volatility, and concentration risks. Energy security has been elevated to a key ESG value. Sustainability priorities are being reshaped globally, and planning now must factor in a politicized, multi-regional pipeline, fraught with sanctions, conflict areas and shifting alliances. When you see that we are in a time when major tech players are being labeled by governments as supply chain risks, you know that a tectonic shift is underway.

3. Divergent regulatory environments:

Even as regulators narrow scope and delay timelines, ESG data quality, auditability and technology-enabled reporting remain non-negotiable. However, political backlash and simplification efforts dominate headlines. While the EU and several other jurisdictions are moving towards prescriptive (although effective) ESG and AI disclosure regimes, the US is operating as a fragmented patchwork of rules. The result: global businesses must operate their ESG strategies at the highest common denominator on topics like GHG reporting and AI transparency, while also navigating state-by-state differences and evolving SEC climate strictures in the US.

4. Impacts on communities:

Marginalized communities, including in the Global South, are unfortunately bearing enormous and often unrecognized burdens from not just resource extraction but also ghost work in AI model training that could cross the line into traumatic. This deepens the perception of environmental injustice and complicates claims that AI growth is sustainable. Just look at the NIMBY (“not in my backyard”) pushback from communities in the US and across the globe that are resulting in data center project deferrals and cancellations, and you can tell how much of an issue this is becoming as communities react to such perceived injustices.

5. Shifting corporate priorities:

The tension in corporate boards is palpable. Some are reframing sustainability from a peripheral CSR topic into a core constraint and enabler for AI growth, where green IT roadmaps are explicitly tied with power strategies, resilience, and regulatory risk. Others, though, are responding to competitive pressures with emphasis on “AI at any cost” growth, and that is making them silently relax their sustainability focus and even back away from their public net-zero or carbon offset commitments.

Business Predictions for a Green Future

In the face of all these variables, it seems like the only thing we can say for certain is that very little is certain. But here’s what the analysts say:

• IDC predicts that by 2027, 75% of customers will require emissions data across the full lifecycle of their IT assets from build to operate to disposition, to help them achieve their overall corporate sustainability goals. Spending on ESG business services continues to grow at an annual rate of 15%.
• Gartner estimates that 20% of planned AI capacity expansion by 2029 may be at risk due to unoptimized AI and sustainability challenges. In addition, the collective responsibility of Fortune 500 companies for damages from climate change contributions may add up to a whopping $500 Billion.

Behind these numbers are expectations that AI growth will expose sustainability blind spots, as glaring gaps emerge between companies’ sustainability strategies and the true resource demands of AI workloads; and that even as AI infrastructure providers face growing pressure to disclose data around energy, emissions and ethical organization practices, ecosystem relationships will begin to shift in material ways.

It bears repeating: Sustainability is a business imperative. And a key indicator of business longevity for the years and decades to come.

Sustainability in… the Product Life Cycle

Sustainability cannot be an afterthought or a side project. “Sustainable by design” means incorporating environmental, social, and economic sustainability into the core of our products, services, and operations. It is no longer “cradle-to-grave” but “cradle-to-cradle.” Hitachi Vantara’s VSP One storage solutions are an excellent example – not only are they engineered specifically to drive the most effective sustainable outcomes (greater than 40-60% GHG emissions and power savings vs. competitive offerings is no joke!) but the entire supply chain upstream and downstream is designed to minimize carbon footprint and maximize circularity.

Sustainability in… the Control Plane

Sustainability data needs to be comprehensive and transparent. Real-time observability is top of mind for CIOs, but this needs to include sustainability-related data that provides visibility and drives action (including through AI-enabled automation). This is the future of “GreenOps” or “SustOps,” where Sustainability considerations become tightly integrated with FinOps and other aspect of ITOps, driving efficiency through intelligence and cross-optimization. Sustainability reporting is exposed through the VSP 360 platform, backed up by sustainability SLAs that guarantee green outcomes.

Sustainability in… the Ecosystem

Businesses need to align their partnerships and value chain around a common prioritization of sustainability. Whether with suppliers, distributors & resellers, CSPs, AI vendors, integrators or other alliance partners, businesses need to make bold choices around who they work with and where they place their bets. Weak links can undermine the mission and detract from the achievement of committed goals. Hitachi Vantara has committed to an ambitious net zero goal, and we are intent on walking the talk, working in close collaboration with an ecosystem that shares our values and is aligned to our goals.

Hitachi Vantara’s Commitment to Sustainability

Sustainability criteria need to factor into decision-making at the highest levels, especially in the context of planning around AI infrastructure: from locations to energy sources, to cooling technologies, to rack efficiency. Beyond that, the key ingredient to a successful sustainability strategy boils down to one thing: courage of conviction. An unwavering commitment, tethered to authentic values, despite external distractions and volatility in the cultural zeitgeist.

Hitachi Vantara is committed to sustainability because it drives innovation and differentiation for our products and services. We do it because it’s good for our customers’ pocketbooks.

But most of all, we do it because it matters. Because it makes a difference for society, for the planet, and for future generations.

Read more about Hitachi Vantara’s sustainability initiatives and the steps we’re taking towards achieving future possibilities.