The urgent need for tech companies to reduce their carbon footprint has never been more critical. With the tech industry contributing significantly to global emissions, it is imperative for these companies to take responsibility and lead the charge toward a more sustainable future.
Marco Pimentel, the author of this article, founded Unless Ventures to invest in brands that create climate change solutions or produce fewer, better sustainable goods and also launched a podcast, Someone Like You — how to build a business that’s good for the planet. He is currently the Chief Marketing Officer at Redbrick, the parent organization to a portfolio of multiple technology companies. Redbrick is a B Corp Certified organisation that has been named one of Canada’s Top Small and Medium Employers for five years running.
In this thought-provoking piece, Marco delves into the intersection of purpose and profit in the tech sector arguing that tech companies must balance profitability with social responsibility. He emphasises the importance of reducing environmental impact, fostering diversity, and enhancing workplace culture and outlines actionable steps for tech companies to integrate purpose into their core operations. Read the full the article for rich insights on how the seemingly mutually exclusive areas of profits and purpose can be mutually reinforcing:
Purpose vs. Profit: Should Tech Companies Have Both?
Tech companies play a crucial role in shaping our society, economy, and carbon footprint. It’s time we start talking about our social responsibility as an industry.
Ethics have never been more vital to tech. Privacy, data security, bias, AI—the tech industry must constantly question the potential impact of any new product. But what about the impact of the businesses themselves?
With great power comes great responsibility. That’s the position the tech industry finds itself in, on the global stage—with huge societal influence. Tech accounts for more than 15.5% of global gross domestic product (GDP), on track to become a $11.47 trillion industry by 2026. Globally, an estimated 62 million people are full-time Information and Communications Technology (ICT) workers.
Being a major player in our global workforce and economy means that tech influences everything from benefits, working conditions, living wage, and widespread professional development, to government policy, spending, and economic climate.
But its impact is even more permanent than an economic or societal one. Tech is leaving a significant environmental footprint, through electronic waste and energy consumption that drains resources and produces carbon emissions. Globally, the ICT sector emits 2% of all greenhouse gas emissions—more than the entire aviation industry—and if trends continue tech will account for 15% of global emissions by 2040. That’s equivalent to half of the world’s transportation sector emissions.
All of these figures grow, without fail, year over year. One thing is clear: the tech industry is an innovative force to be reckoned with and has the power to shape the digital world and our socio-environmental landscape.
Why Should Tech Companies Care?
Tech is in a position to do the right thing. And we have every reason to.
Over the last five years, the European tech workforce has grown from 750,000 tech workers to a staggering 2.3 million. Every month, the tech industry adds 9,600 jobs to the U.S. economy. Worldwide, the technology sector is an increasingly influential employer.
The tech industry is poised to enact broader social change through workplace culture. Tech challenges the norm every day in product development and it can do the same for its employee wellness. Tech should continue to push the boundaries of employee benefits, parental leave, healthcare, and lifestyle flexibility. Doing so encourages more applicants into career tracks for tech, in turn, bolstering the talent pool. It’s in our interest to keep tech a desirable sector, and it’s socially innovative to push other industries to break the mold and better support workers.
From a social equity standpoint, tech should also lead the way because tech needs diversity to thrive. To meaningfully fulfill this need, a company or industry’s commitment to inclusion must evolve beyond representation. Businesses must draw in a rich variety of perspectives and people to ensure their product serves the needs of a diverse user base—innovation flourishes where unique insights and skill sets are brought together.
Our futures may be hitched to the tech industry, but without acting on their social responsibility, tech companies will fail to evolve—and therefore fail to thrive.
A tech company’s stakeholders aren’t just investors or C-suite executives. They’re employees, customers, and communities. At Redbrick, becoming a Certified B Corporation™ (or B Corp) helped us apply this lens to everything we do. B Corp Certification recognizes companies that meet verified high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency, granted by B Lab, a global nonprofit network organization.
B Corp has given our software businesses a framework for improvement. It’s allowed us to critically and holistically evaluate our impact beyond profit: how we can improve, what we can double down on, and how other organizations have solved the same problems—it has ratified everything we’re passionate about and brought our vision for the future into focus.
How Can Tech Companies Take on Social Responsibility?
It starts with a straightforward mission: be profitable and purposeful. At the outset, this seems like squeezing together two independent goals. But meaningful purpose will drive creative innovation and ultimately bring in profit.
We need to set aside the perspective that our purpose is profit. That kind of thinking doesn’t bring about big ideas—or forge a better future.
So, where can tech focus its purpose? Climate and sustainability is a good start. Despite other industries facing public and governing pressure to address their emissions, the tech industry gets overlooked. But IT-related emissions will continue to grow 30% annually unless companies take action.
Companies can partner with a consultant or conduct a full audit of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions to understand and learn about their carbon footprint. Software businesses should look toward green-powered data centers. Tech businesses with a physical supply chain or products could investigate opportunities that would serve a circular economy—product versatility or repair programs are becoming increasingly valuable to consumers. Remember, profit through purpose is possible and tech businesses shouldn’t rule out the possibility of untapped success.
To capture these opportunities and push forward with innovative ideas, tech needs to push harder to hire diversely. To do so, they need to start building a pipeline of candidates. More than 73% of tech workers are men and 62% of the global tech workforce is white. But the problem starts earlier than the workforce—there are fewer women graduating with technology-related degrees than two decades ago.
Engaging with women and other marginalized students early on will encourage more underrepresented talent to enter tech. This kind of action requires a tech company’s most important stakeholder: their local community. Establishing or partnering with existing community mentorship programs, perhaps through a local post-secondary, will uplift students and make an investment in education that could one day return the favor to tech with talented minds and inspired, committed individuals. Profit and purpose, intertwined, create a positive feedback loop that will allow tech to reach new heights.
This can only work if accountability and transparency are present throughout each organization. These two pillars are a daunting challenge, but they’ll push any business toward meaningful action and purpose.
In tech, there’s no better time for those two things. We now have a responsibility to our employees, customers, and the world to do the right thing—to commit to building an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy, and redefine what it means to be a tech company in our ever-changing world.
