The climate discussion usually points to industry, transportation, agriculture. It rarely includes the technology sector on the list. However, data centers, hardware, AI model training and accelerated obsolescence make IT a source of growing emissions. Pretending we are neutral is part of the problem.
The real footprint of the IT sector
Data centers already account for a significant percentage of global electricity consumption, and the curve is accelerating due to the rise of generative AI. Training a large model consumes as much energy as hundreds of households use in a year. The hardware lifecycle — mineral extraction, manufacturing, logistics, disposal — adds an additional layer of impact.
To this is added an uncomfortable truth: energy efficiency per computation has improved, but total volume grows faster. Making each query cheaper is pointless if we make a thousand times more queries.
Measure, reduce, offset — in that order
We believe every IT company has a concrete responsibility, and in that order:
- Measure the real footprint — including scope 3, value chain and cloud used.
- Reduce through technical decisions: efficient architectures, regions with clean energy grids, proper sizing, avoiding over-engineering.
- Offset only what could not be reduced, and with verifiable projects — not as a license to avoid reducing.
Technology that enables climate action by the State
This is where the IT sector has the greatest potential for contribution. The State needs technology to measure, monitor and decide on climate action:
- Environmental monitoring and emissions inventory systems.
- Platforms to manage renewable energy, building efficiency or just transition programs.
- Analytics to target subsidies and adaptation policies.
- Traceability for international commitments (NDCs, ESG reports, 2030 Agenda).
Building this digital infrastructure is a direct contribution to the State's capacity to face the climate crisis.
What Sofis does
We hold the ISO 14001 environmental management certification and have an internal initiative called #GreenSofis that addresses consumption, mobility and procurement. We have been members of the UN Global Compact since 2013, and we report on our progress.
But more importantly: we actively choose to work on projects that enable climate action by the State and organizations contributing to the 2030 Agenda. Our concrete way of contributing is by building the technology that makes them possible.
In practice
The technology sector is both part of the problem — due to its energy and hardware footprint — and part of the solution. IT companies have a responsibility to measure, reduce, and offset their impact, and to build systems that enable government climate action.
¿Why does this matter?
Because the market and society will increasingly demand that the IT sector account for its own impact. And because governments need technology partners who not only understand the environmental challenge, but have worked on it within themselves first.