Sustainability will be the major focus for the technology industry in 2022.

Firms will be mandated to lay out and implement a comprehensive sustainability strategy in 2022 which will require more concentrated leadership, particularly in the APAC region.

The year 2021 has been a boom for the technology industry, as a result, digital transformation and cloud investments have been prioritized, and companies across industries have embraced transformative technologies to develop relevant solutions. Another key trend that has been incorporated into businesses is sustainability, which can assist in order to address the climate crisis. Even the incredible march of the unicorns has been an exhilarating feature of the year, with a wide range of firms taking part in the new valuation stories.

According to the CEOs of some of the top tech firms, 2021 has been a watershed year for tech and the paths for the next decade have been truly illuminated. A recent Frost & Sullivan report suggests that sustainability is critical to 42 percent of company strategies in India. Undoubtedly, in addition to meeting compliance and regulatory requirements, people of all ages, particularly the young, are increasingly evaluating companies' sustainability track records and commitments through a sustainability lens before committing their money. Furthermore, businesses in both the public and private sectors are beginning to do much the same with their suppliers and associates, holding them—and themselves—responsible for reducing carbon emissions.

It's no surprise that more and more environmentally friendly raw materials and greener manufacturing processes are being used, and renewable energy is employed wherever possible. The government's focus on sustainability can clearly be seen through its Sustainable Development Goals, for example, the recently conducted COP 29 Summit, which aims at a target of zero-emission for India by 2022. Recycled materials are taking the place of biodegradable materials in situations where they may not be suitable. Recognizing that sustainability is an important paradigm to act on is an effective first step toward preserving our environment. It may not be a choice for long as in 2022, every enterprise may be required to develop and implement a comprehensive sustainability strategy—a tall order that will necessitate more focused leadership, particularly in the Asia Pacific, including India. According to Forrester's Predictions 2022 report, APAC lags far behind North America and EMEA in appointing a sustainability lead at the VP, director, or other executive levels.

Furthermore, only 30 percent of Global 2000 companies in the Asia Pacific are taking real action when it comes to making their sustainability efforts more transparent, making a funded sustainability function, and ultimately reducing their carbon footprint or e-waste, according to the same report. Forrester's report suggests that for many firms in the region, sustainability efforts are motivated by compliance and investor pressure, rather than strategic planning and risk management. Such a naive approach checks the box but has no real impact on climate change, as well as risks misleading the environmentally conscious customers and partners. In order to make some actual impact, firms must change some of the fundamentals of their business. For instance, Oracle is determined to operate all the cloud regions that power its infrastructure and application servers on completely 100 percent renewable energy by 2025. Additionally, it also requires its major vendors - both for direct manufacturing and indirect procurement - to hold environmental programs in place by 2025 that include emissions-reduction targets.

Some clever ideas for how businesses can engage customers in sustainability efforts would be if retailers, logistics companies, and other shippers of physical products offered their customers with delivery options that included information on the environmental impact, rather than just the speed, and another would be if they charge customers less or give them other incentives to choose the most environmentally-friendly option. If such ideas are implemented, then this practice could have a positive impact on the environment while also enhancing a company's brand. Anyhow, businesses will increasingly rely on advanced information technologies to help them achieve their sustainability goals. For instance, the Indian agricultural cooperative IFFCO analyses massive amounts of data in order to develop an eco-friendly nano-technology fertilizer capable of cutting the use of conventional chemical fertilizers in half while increasing crop yields.

Then there's BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL), which serves over 2.7 million customers in West and South Delhi. It recently conducted a trial of the country's first territory-wide Home Energy Report (HER) program. Customers were empowered with critical information that could help them make better choices and manage their power consumption more efficiently, with the help of modern cloud technologies. The change will be difficult for everyone, and there will be no single solution. It will necessitate behavioral policy, and regulatory changes, as well as a business model and technological changes. To make the nation's sustainability goals a reality, every enterprise must integrate with these initiatives and collaborate with the administration to ensure seamless alignment. After all, future well-being is solely dependent on how sustainable we are today.