Colt’s 2024 Digital Infrastructure Report explores the relationship between CIOs and their business’s sustainability strategy, interviewing over 1,500 IT decision-makers from more than ten countries and across a variety of industries.
They found that CIOs are not only sat around the boardroom table when decisions are made, they’re directly leading the strategic decision-making when it comes to environmental impact and global governance. 71% of them have direct roles in shaping these strategies or own them entirely, highlighting how the responsibility of the CIO has evolved into one that is far more strategic and is moving away from the sole primary duties of managing network security and optimisation.
The report of Colt revealed stark differences between regions and industries, and their results in the Benelux were no different. Colt found that the IT decision-makers operating in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg edge ahead of their continental counterparts in a range of metrics, from future-ready sustainability planning to what attitudes they have when working with external partners.
An impressive 45% of the CIOs Colt surveyed in the Benelux are primary stakeholders in their business’ sustainability strategy, focusing primarily on environmental impact and governance.
Colt asked our survey what role does environmental impact and governance have in their digital infrastructure strategy, discovering that 38% said that these considerations drive all of their strategic decision-making. This number rises to 46% in the Benelux: a clear 12% increase above the survey benchmark.
The survey continued by asking CIOs where their business was on its environmental impact and governance strategy, finding out that 28% of them had already established a multi-year plan that adheres to science-based targets. In the Benelux this rises to 35%, showing that sustainability has an even firmer rooting in multiyear strategic planning in this region.
In their 2023 Report, Colt asked our survey what ‘intelligent’ features made up their digital infrastructure – think generative AI, big data analysis, and so on – and we wanted to take the pulse on what key capabilities are currently at the top of their lists. They found that Benelux-based CIOs have most adopted adaptation to user demand capabilities (32%), flexible bandwidth consumption/ Network as a Service /On Demand (30%) and on-demand connectivity (29%) to better equip their digital infrastructure. These statistics ring true to how we’re seeing on-demand networking adoption across the industry, and these Benelux-based CIOs are ahead of the curve. By dialling up bandwidth when you need it and scaling it back down when you don’t, businesses can save on expensive networking costs by only paying for what they use, reducing carbon emissions in the process.
Benelux-based CIOs are not afraid to speak out with network suppliers whose sustainability goals do not align with their own. Three in five (60%) of the Benelux-based CIOs Colt surveyed said that environmental impact and governance is important when deciding on working with a digital infrastructure partner. Additionally, more than half (57%) of these CIOs would ask a supplier to review their ESG goals if they did not align with their own. If a vendor’s credentials do not match with theirs, they simply will not work with them.
Budgets are higher in the Benelux, suggesting a stronger propensity to invest in the future, more so than their international peers. The top-ranking survey average reported an investment between 11-20% growth over the next two years, where 27% of the survey fell into this percentile. A further 24% of the survey average listed their investment in the 21-30% percentile. In the Benelux, both investment brackets swell to 35% and 32% respectively, demonstrating an investment trajectory that signifies a relationship between sustainability planning and future-proof investing.
The report overall revealed how CIOs really are taking the lead when it comes to sustainability, and Benelux-based CIOs are even further ahead of that curve. Visit the Colt homepage to go into the report in more detail or contact us to discuss how Colt can help you achieve your sustainability
