As we approach 2026, sustainability in technology enters a decisive new phase: moving from aspirational pledges and marketing language to measurable impact driven by data, accountability, and operational integration. Grounded in insights from leading IT sustainability think tanks and market analysts, this piece outlines the emergent landscape and the practical shifts IT leaders must embrace.

The 2025 Australian Climate Tech Industry Report signals that the sector has moved beyond early-stage innovation to focus on the essential "one to one hundred" scaling phase necessary for deep decarbonisation.

This momentum is supported by significant capital flow, with over $680 million in Venture Capital raised in 2025, and a growing workforce of more than 7,000 people.

For enterprise, the introduction of mandatory climate-related reporting for approximately 6,000 Australian companies is a primary driver, forcing a strategic shift towards evidence-based solutions. However, scaling capital-intensive deep tech requires overcoming the reliance on offtake agreements ("If you build it, we will buy it"), which are identified as the missing link for securing financing and commercialising innovations.

The World Economic Forum examines the environmental impact of Australia's digital sector and advocates for a "Nature Positive" transition by 2030. The tech industry's hidden costs include 1.5 trillion litres of annual water consumption globally, energy demands rivalling Japan's usage, and 60 billion kg of e-waste yearly. Addressing these impacts could unlock $800 billion globally by 2030. Key Australian priorities include designing for circularity, investing in e-waste infrastructure , implementing closed-loop water systems, and decarbonising building materials. Success requires coordinated action among tech companies, policymakers, and customers. The central argument: digital sustainability is both an environmental necessity and a strategic economic opportunity for Australia's tech sector.

Atlassian, a cloud-based enterprise software company, is navigating “digital sustainability” as it pursues a net-zero target by 2040 amid rapid growth in AI.

Key challenges, including heavy Scope 3 emissions tied to hyperscaler cloud providers, the rising energy and water footprint of AI, the complexity of tracking emissions from a distributed workforce, and tightening global sustainability regulations. Opportunities for climate leadership through using procurement power to push suppliers toward science-based targets, collaborating with partners to set and meet net-zero goals, and helping customers accelerate their own climate transitions. The case study emphasises transparent reporting, proactive risk management (i.e. work-from-home energy use and exploring VPPAs), and the central role of collaboration across companies and teams to decarbonise the broader digital ecosystem.

Mastercard’s push to decouple business growth from carbon emissions by embedding sustainability into IT operations. How the company tackled data- and culture-driven challenges, pursued cloud and asset optimisation, and implemented carbon-aware FinOps and governance across multi-cloud and on-prem assets.

Resulting in a tangible dividend: about 15% additional cost savings and roughly US$2 million in savings, alongside progress toward Net Zero by 2040, illustrating how making sustainability a core IT prerogative can drive both environmental and economic performance.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly emerging as one of the defining forces of the decade, standing alongside the urgent global challenge of climate change. With worldwide AI investment forecast to exceed US$600 billion by 2028, AI's massive appetite for computational power creates a significant environmental footprint that Australian IT leaders can no longer ignore.

The acceleration of AI workloads is straining resources globally and locally: Energy and Emissions, Water Consumption and E-Waste.

For Australian organisations, sustainable AI adoption is a critical strategic imperative. The goal is to pursue innovation through sustainability, ensuring that our digital evolution supports, rather than undermines, our climate commitments.

Amid the 2025–26 shift, digital sustainability hinges on energy-aware IT leadership. The Energy Shift ties surging data centre demand to AI-driven compute power, reclassifying energy as a core resource. Leaders must master New Business Infrastructure—understanding data centres’ role, energy-digital growth, and decarbonisation costs. Regulations push System-Level Accountability, provenance, and Scope 3 emissions reporting, demanding robust provenance and traceability. For Australia’s 1 million IT workers, the horizon blends AI-driven efficiency with workforce redesign, AI fluency, data literacy, and cyber resilience. The 2026 horizon urges proactive governance of energy, data sovereignty, and ethical, transparent, scalable compliance.

Sustainable IT is a non-negotiable constraint shaping every IT decision. IT leaders, cloud practitioners, and sustainability champions can drive real, measurable progress with a GreenOps focus that spans the entire technology portfolio—from data centres to devices and SaaS.

Is your organisation unlocking genuine value from its sustainability efforts, especially in the digital realm?

New research shows that moving beyond ambition to measurable impact requires deep integration across the Sustainability Value Triangle: Finance, IT, and Sustainability.

Advanced Integrators consistently achieve higher sales growth, stronger business cases, and better access to quality data.

Crucially, the IT function is pivotal, tasked with providing the automated systems necessary for reliable data collection and justification of investment.

Learn how to bridge the gap between commitment and operational reality and drive tangible commercial success.

Sustainable IT is a strategic necessity for Australian businesses undergoing transformation. CIOs/CTOs lead with structured, measurable approaches using tailored Sustainable IT standards to embed ESG performance across the organisation. Sustainable IT helps guide enterprise technology to minimise harm and maximise positive ESG impact, addressing environmental footprints, social impact, and governance. Highlighting benefits in financial value, reputation, and future readiness. It introduces nearly 200 IT-specific ESG standards covering environmental, social, and governance goals, and offers practical starting points: focus on material, high-impact areas and establish vision, accountability, and baselining energy use.

The recent Technology Executive Roundtable on Digital Sustainability provided an essential strategic overview for executives.

The session established digital sustainability as a critical business imperative, driven by regulatory requirements, investor pressure, employee values, and the need for efficiency. With 5 billion people connected and constantly interacting, digital consumption represents an estimated 40% of an individual's carbon budget when aligned with Paris 1.5°C targets. Organisations must urgently shift from reactive compliance to proactive sustainability strategies that deliver both environmental impact and business value.

As Australia’s economy continues to ride the tidal wave of digital transformation, our technology sector stands as a national beacon of innovation and growth. Yet this digital future sits at a climate crossroads. The latest National Climate Risk Assessment makes clear that the very backbone of our digital economy—telecoms, energy, data centres, and critical supply chains—faces escalating threats from heat, bushfires, floods, and extreme weather. These hazards don’t just threaten infrastructure; they ripple through productivity, insurance costs, R&D investment, and the skilled workforce that powers tech advancement.

In this moment, tech professionals have a pivotal role to play.

The 2024 GreenOps Survey by ClimateAction.Tech reveals a pivotal shift in Enterprise IT: sustainability, as a KPI, is now more effective than cost-saving metrics for achieving financial savings. The survey, based on 2,680 global responses, aimed to determine if environmental concerns like carbon reduction are taking precedence over traditional cost targets in IT.

Key findings indicate a strong preference for sustainability: 1) Sustainability Over Cost, 2) Personal Commitment, 3) Leadership Support, 4) Measuring Impact.

The technology sector is facing a "climate strategy crisis" as rapid growth in areas like AI leads to soaring energy demands, undermining existing climate pledges. Many tech companies' greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets are losing meaning due to this unconstrained energy consumption, particularly from data centres and hardware production, coupled with outdated market-based accounting methodologies that can obscure actual emissions.

As the deadline for mandatory climate reporting passes, organisations must ask: Is our enterprise technology team prepared to meet the challenges ahead?

From January 2025, the first of 6,000 Australian businesses will begin preparations for this significant uplift and and will impact many more as sustainability becomes a focal point in corporate procurement processes.

This article examines the resource implications of the AI-driven digital expansion, emphasising the unprecedented demand AI and data centres place on power and water. It argues that the rapid deployment of AI-enabled services and the construction of data centres threaten energy systems and water resources, with notable concerns in Australia, the UK, and globally.

An insightful day at Australia's largest climate event for directors - bringing together leaders, experts, policymakers and investors to strengthen governance capabilities, better understand climate risks and unlock strategic value from the net zero transition.

IT sustainability maturity benchmark program.

Assess your current state in 11 pivotal characteristics and capabilities for driving and partnering on enterprise sustainability. Benchmark your organisation using standardised KPIs and compare results internally and against others in your industry.

Digital sustainability involves a conscientious and responsible approach to technology usage that fosters workload efficiency and leads to sustainable outcomes for our planet.

How do we measure, report, and reduce the environmental impact of cloud computing, data centres, and digital applications? This session as part of CAWSYD’25 cut through greenwashing to explore practical strategies for businesses to track and manage their digital emissions with integrity.