The Carbon Council has historically championed technologies and applications that can have a positive effect on supply chain related carbon emissions.

The Cloud has garnered strong interest amongst stakeholders as it can help not only to streamline your ICT operations but also have a positive effect on your overall emissions, due to reduced energy usage and improved supplier management. This is not to be ignored.

Of course there is currently significant debate over what types of applications should run in the Cloud, versus which need to run in-house. Much of that debate is focused on performance issues. But in fact there is also a class of collaboration applications that, because of their very nature, are more advantageously deployed in the cloud.

Supply Chain and Sustainability Management applications are perfect examples. Supply chains can involve hundreds and even thousands of organisations. To get a complete view of its supply chain and the attenuated environmental risks, an organisation needs a central location through which it can view and analyse all of the relevant information about its suppliers.

Businesses that choose to run applications in the cloud can reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by 30 percent or more, versus running those same applications on their own IT infrastructure.

Large cloud data centres can lower overall energy use due to economies of scale and operational efficiencies beyond what corporate IT departments can achieve. These findings, from a study commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by Accenture and WSP Environment & Energy, demonstrate the potential of cloud computing to reduce the carbon footprint from running business applications.

By tapping more efficient and therefore lower-emitting resources, cloud computing users can reduce their carbon emissions and be better-positioned to meet regulatory standards.

Obviously there are many reasons for the supply chain to embrace the Cloud when it comes to Sustainability and we are now undergoing an extensive research and recommendation programme to analyse the solutions available, their applications as they relate to supply chain sustainability and the organisations with which you should engage for your requirements.

An in-depth Solution Report, titled ‘Green Cloud Thinking’, focussing on sustainability in the Cloud will be produced later in the year with comment from policy-makers, industry leaders and end users.

A number of key issues will be addressed in Green Cloud Thinking to include how the Cloud can:

• Help reduce energy consumption from supply chain related ICT activities.
• Assist green procurement with its increasing responsibilities for enterprise-wide compliance initiatives by bringing suppliers together on one platform.
• Transform visibility in the supply chain.
• Assist with sustainability reporting.
• Drive the automation of services.

Additional comment will focus upon:

• The legal framework surrounding the Cloud
• Security concerns
• Assessment of which applications should be hosted in the Cloud and which in-house.
• Which platforms best suit the requirements of Supply Chain sustainability.
• What constitutes a Green Data Centre
• Return on Investment

These are just some of the issues and applications that will be covered in what will be a comprehensive overview on the Cloud and the key role it will play in assisting organisations with their sustainability initiatives.