From Insight to Action: Exploring Strategic Responses to Digital Decarbonization

The fast-paced evolution of digital technologies and their integration into organizational business processes, customer experience management, and data-driven decision-making contribute toward a significant demand on data centers. As data centers evolve to support this increased demand, increased carbon emissions from data centers are reported based on their power requirements. As part of a broader sustainability study, this paper seeks to investigate and identify key strategic organizational responses to digital decarbonization. Five hundred and thirty-nine respondents’ perspectives were analyzed thematically through a survey research strategy. Based on the analysis of the qualitative comments, six digital decarbonization strategies were identified, namely defined data ownership and accountability; clear policies for data classification, retention, and disposal; technology application for effective dark data management; regular audits and compliance checks; improved data quality and minimization; and knowledge sharing and responsible data usage. To operationalize these findings, the key organizational strategies for digital decarbonization were mapped to the three aspects of the triple bottom line framework to support guiding the broader sustainability goals of organizations, thus turning insight into action.