The CTO’s New Mandate: From Tech Enabler to Sustainability Orchestrator
For years, corporate sustainability felt like a game of high-level ambition and low-level frustration. Targets were set in the boardroom, but progress on the ground often stalled. However, a new global study released during the World Economic Forums 2026 meeting in Davos reveals a massive shift in 2026: Sustainability has officially become a technology execution challenge.
The research, titled "From targets to technology: how CTOs are rewiring sustainability," surveyed 600 Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) globally. The findings are clear: CTOs are no longer just supporting the green agenda—they are running it.
Here is what the digital sustainability community needs to know about this pivotal shift.
The CTO is Now the "Operational Backbone"
Gone are the days when IT simply bought greener servers. Today, technology is where emissions are generated, measured, and reduced.
95% of CTOs say they now play an active role in driving sustainability.
Their remit has expanded to include shaping roadmaps, enabling data transparency, and driving innovation.
In short, the carbon footprint of the modern enterprise is deeply embedded in its tech stack—from cloud architecture to AI models. If you want to decarbonise the company, you have to decarbonise the code.
2. Economics are Driving the Agenda (For Better or Worse)
The study highlights that sustainability progress is currently "selective and economically driven." CTOs are prioritising initiatives that double as operational excellence:
Top Priorities: Energy efficiency, cloud optimisation, and AI-driven energy management.
The Logic: Reducing energy consumption reduces opex. It’s a win-win.
However, there is a catch. Initiatives with longer-term payoffs, like circular economy models, are ranking dead last. The report warns that by focusing only on what pays back fastest, companies are missing out on indirect value drivers and ignoring the rising cost of inaction.
3. The "AI Paradox" and Digital Debt
Artificial Intelligence is cited as the default tool for sustainability in 2026. It is being applied everywhere, from supply chain optimisation to carbon monitoring. But there is a structural weakness: AI is running ahead of its foundations.
38% of CTOs cite data availability and quality as a major barrier.
31% point to legacy infrastructure as a roadblock.
The risk here is "false confidence." Running advanced AI models on fragmented, low-quality data can produce precise-looking answers that are strategically misleading. As the report notes, "Garbage in, garbage out." To scale impact, we must first pay down our digital debt.
4. The "Climate Literacy" Talent Gap
Perhaps the most difficult bottleneck to solve is people. Over 40% of CTOs cite a lack of skilled talent as a key barrier.
We aren't talking about a shortage of coders or a shortage of ecologists. We are facing a shortage of people who are both.
Sustainability teams often lack deep technical fluency (leading to weak requirements).
Tech teams often lack climate literacy (leading to solutions that optimise the wrong variables).
Closing this gap requires a new breed of professional—the "Green Technologist"—who sits at the intersection of data engineering and environmental science.
5. The Path Forward: System-Building
The era of "opportunistic optimisation"—picking the low-hanging fruit of energy efficiency—is ending. The next phase of the green transition requires deliberate system-building.
For digital sustainability leaders, the call to action is three-fold:
Formalise it: Move sustainability from a "negotiable input" to a hard design constraint in your R&D framework.
Fix the Data: Stop deploying AI on shaky foundations; modernise your legacy systems to ensure data accuracy.
Train the Hybrids: Invest in cross-disciplinary training to bridge the gap between your IT and Sustainability teams.
The pressure is universal, but execution is not. The winners of the next decade won't be those with the loudest commitments, but those who can successfully industrialise sustainability through their technology stack.
References
From targets to technology: how CTOs are rewiring sustainability [We Don’t Have Time / Kearney]
We Don't Have Time - the world's largest media platform for climate action