1. Sustainability finally became a CIO-level accountability

For years, sustainability lived primarily within environmental or corporate responsibility teams. But in 2025, CIOs, CTOs, CISOs and even CFOs became direct participants in the sustainability conversation. IT estates – datacentres, devices, cloud workloads, servers, networks, storage and the entire end-to-end lifecycle – are now recognised as major contributors to emissions, waste and resource consumption.

Boards started asking different questions. Instead of, “Do we have a sustainability plan?”, they started asking “How is our IT estate affecting our net-zero trajectory?”

That reframing has shifted accountability upwards and forced leaders to confront inefficiencies and assumptions that had been ignored for a decade.

2. A move away from headline claims toward measurable outcomes

In previous years, sustainability conversations were driven by ambition rather than evidence. This year, enterprises began basing decisions on:

• measurable energy reductions
• documented lifecycle emissions
• transparent reporting
• accredited frameworks
• supply chain scrutiny
• hardware circularity metrics
• real, auditable data

Leaders are now interrogating suppliers more closely, asking for lifecycle assessments, reuse rates, repairability, carbon impacts and chain-of-custody evidence – rather than accepting broad claims.

3. Recognition that sustainability and risk management are inseparable

Sustainability has moved firmly into the risk management domain. Poorly managed hardware disposal, opaque supply chains, excessive cloud sprawl and non-compliant data destruction now all sit under wider governance and audit scrutiny.

The conversation is becoming more pragmatic and grounded, linking sustainability objectives with risk mitigation, operational efficiency and financial resilience.

Where the IT industry saw genuine progress in 2025

1. A measurable rise in circular IT practices

This year, more organisations committed to:

• reuse instead of default recycling
• refurbishment and redeployment
• value recovery models
• extending device lifespans
• lifecycle-focused planning

Circularity is becoming operational rather than theoretical. Public sector bodies, financial institutions and mid-sized enterprises have all shown stronger discipline in managing hardware responsibly while extracting maximum value.

2. Stronger demand for independently verified sustainability reporting

Organisations are becoming sceptical of unverified ESG claims. Instead, they’re seeking partners who can provide:

• accredited ITAD processes
• ISO-certified environmental and security management
• transparent audit trails
• independently validated reporting

This has raised expectations across the entire industry – a welcome development.

3. A renewed focus on efficiency over expansion

Rather than defaulting to new infrastructure, enterprises focused more on optimising what they already had. We saw:

• consolidation of on-premise hardware
• rationalisation of cloud environments
• reduced duplication of data
• decommissioning of underused servers
• optimised storage architectures

These measures delivered both sustainability gains and significant cost benefits – a key motivator in a financially cautious year.

Where gaps still remain

1. Lack of unified standards across regions and suppliers

Sustainability progress remains fragmented because organisations still face:

• inconsistent reporting metrics
• varying levels of supplier maturity
• unclear end-of-life requirements
• uneven data quality
• regional regulatory differences

Without greater standardisation, enterprises are left to interpret sustainability for themselves – often incorrectly.

2. The misconception that cloud equals sustainability

Many organisations still assume cloud migration is a sustainability strategy. In reality, cloud environments can be just as inefficient if poorly governed. Cloud sprawl, unused instances and oversized workloads continue to drive both emissions and cost.

3. Hardware disposal remains a major blind spot

IT asset disposal remains dangerously under-managed. Many organisations still:

• rely on non-accredited recyclers
• fail to track serial numbers
• lack evidence of certified data destruction
• treat disposal as an afterthought
• choose partners solely on cost

This exposes businesses to compliance failures, environmental harm and significant governance risk.

The way ahead in 2026

If 2025 was the year sustainability entered the governance mainstream, 2026 must be the year it becomes truly embedded operationally. This requires:

• lifecycle-first hardware planning
• sustainable procurement frameworks
• disciplined cloud governance
• accredited IT asset disposal
• circular IT strategies
• audit-ready data destruction
• transparent, verifiable reporting
• cross-functional ownership

Sustainability is no longer a trend or competitive differentiator. It is becoming an essential hallmark of responsible technology leadership. While challenges remain, the momentum we’ve seen this year suggests that the sector is increasingly prepared to confront its environmental responsibilities and make meaningful, measurable change.