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Sustainable Operations

Leaner operations cost less.
They also waste less.

IT, operations, and sustainability are one system. When aligned, waste disappears. How alignment creates efficiency →

Industry context
4.4%
of all U.S. electricity consumed by data centers in 2023 — projected to reach 12% by 2028
U.S. Dept. of Energy / Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
30%
of energy consumed in the average commercial building is wasted — not from negligence, but from systems no one is watching
U.S. EPA / Energy Star
30–50%
energy reduction achievable in existing commercial buildings through integrated smart controls — HVAC, lighting, occupancy
ACEEE / U.S. Dept. of Energy
17%
of total U.S. energy consumption attributable to commercial buildings — the second largest sector after industry
U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2023
Not bad decisions. No decisions. Systems running without oversight.
40×
growth in companies with formal science-based emissions targets since 2018
Science Based Targets initiative, 2024
2018
164
2024
6,600+
Amazon
Net zero by 2040
590+ signatories
Microsoft
Carbon negative by 2030
Emissions up 29%
Google
Net zero ambition by 2030
Footprint up 51%

The largest companies in the world have made a decision. The question is whether yours has.

Science-based emissions targets grew from 164 companies in 2018 to 6,600+ by 2024. None are fully on track.

The largest gap in corporate sustainability isn't ambition.
It's operational visibility.

You don't need a climate fund. You need a clear picture of where operations burn energy and budget without oversight.

You may not realize what your operations are costing.

Operational waste compounds inside systems that never surface the cost.

01 IT Adjacent

Data centers don't live in the cloud.

Every SaaS tool and cloud service has a physical footprint you're funding — but no one has reviewed.

Why it goes unaddressed Vendor selection sits in IT. Whether anyone has reviewed it rarely has an owner.
Energy trajectory
2023
4.4%
2028
up to 12%
Share of total U.S. electricity consumed by data centers
DOE / Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 2024
↑ 130%
projected increase in U.S. data center electricity consumption between 2024 and 2030
Savings available in existing buildings
30–50% REDUCIBLE
Energy reduction achievable in existing commercial buildings through integrated smart controls
ACEEE / U.S. Dept. of Energy
17%
of total U.S. energy consumption comes from commercial buildings — the second largest sector
02 IT + Ops

The savings are already inside the building.

Smart controls can reduce building energy 30–50% — but accountability sits between departments, so nothing moves.

The organizational gap The technology exists. The ROI is documented. Nobody owns the intersection.
03 Case Study
A mid-market technology company · $2.4M annual cloud spend

Overprovisioned cloud. No ownership.

Cloud costs climb when engineering and finance operate separately. Unused compute runs continuously.

What was happening
IT Problem
  • Redundant infrastructure
  • Poor rightsizing
  • Systems built for peaks that never arrived
Ops Problem
  • No ownership assigned
  • No efficiency incentives
  • No shared accountability
Intervention
Rightsized infrastructure Visibility by team Ownership introduced
22%reduction in cloud spend
energy consumption — compute reduced, not managed
What was happening
IT Problem
  • Fragmented architecture
  • Redundant systems
  • No authority to consolidate
Ops Problem
  • Distributed purchasing authority
  • No procurement discipline
  • No visibility into what existed
Intervention
Vendor landscape mapped Consolidation executed Contracts renegotiated
18%cost reduction
infrastructure load, maintenance burden, energy draw
04 Case Study
A professional services firm · 140+ active vendor relationships

Vendor sprawl. Decentralized decisions.

Teams buying tools independently. Functionality overlapping. Contracts auto-renewing. Neither IT nor procurement had the full picture.

Fewer tools means fewer servers. Fewer servers means less energy.

None of this required a sustainability mandate.

It required visibility. And once you have it — the decision is yours.

Three functions. One system.

IT controls infrastructure. Operations control behavior. Sustainability is what happens when both stop wasting resources.

Sustainability is not a function. It is the result of alignment.

Where waste hides when systems drift.

Technical Waste — IT
Overbuilt. Underused. Invisible.

Systems at 40% utilization. Unused capacity burning energy and budget.

Organizational Waste — Ops
Ownerless. Fragmented. Compounding.

Decisions made in isolation. Tools bought without shared visibility. Spend that benefits no one.

Systemic Waste — Combined
No visibility. No ownership. No baseline.

Decisions in isolation. Vendors across unread contracts. No shared picture of cost.

The System

IT and Operations determine everything.

When they drift, cost compounds quietly.

IT Determines
The infrastructure layer
  • Infrastructure — what runs and what it costs
  • Compute — what is provisioned versus used
  • Vendor contracts — what you pay and why
Operations Determines
The workflow layer
  • Workflow — how work moves through the system
  • Incentives — what the organization rewards
  • Ownership — who is accountable for what
When They Drift
Waste compounds. Cost compounds. Energy compounds.
  • No shared baseline for efficiency
  • Spend continues without review
  • Sustainability becomes a report, not a result

We sit above both.

We see the system as a whole — where money leaks, energy wastes, and effort duplicates.

01
We map the system

IT infrastructure, operational processes, vendor spend, energy. One picture of actual cost.

02
We identify the leaks

Money leaving without return. Energy consumed without output. Effort duplicated.

03
We remove the waste

Specialized providers, no upfront cost. The model works only if you save.

Sustainability appears. Not as a goal. As a result.

When IT and operations operate in alignment, outcomes arrive without a mandate.

Lower cost to run the organization
Reduced energy usage across infrastructure
Fewer systems, contracts, and vendors
Less redundancy in process and headcount
Clearer operations with visible accountability

Inefficiency compounds quietly.

Margins tighten. Energy costs rise. Investors pay closer attention. The cost of inaction is no longer zero.

30%
Average recoverable spend in mid-market operations, unaddressed
92%
Of businesses have never conducted a full operational efficiency audit
Cost multiple when inefficiency is identified late versus early

No upfront cost. No disruption.

We work alongside what already exists. Findings first. What happens next is your decision.

01
No upfront cost

Funded through the savings it produces. Structurally aligned with your outcome.

02
No disruption

Alongside existing operations. No systems replaced, no processes interrupted.

03
No system access required

We start with what you can share and work through specialists to address what we find.

04
Findings first, decisions second

You see what we found before anything changes. Implementation is a separate decision.

This isn't a sustainability initiative.
It's the system working
the way it should.

The assessment costs nothing. The findings are yours. What we find has usually been compounding for years.

Our Vendor Bench

350+ analyst-rated partners across 14 categories.

Microsoft AWS AT&T Verizon Lumen Cloudflare Equinix RingCentral Zoom GoTo
See the full bench →
Service

IT Optimization

Software renews unreviewed. Infrastructure drifts. Vendors multiply. We stop the bleed.