Photo by Abhinav Sunil

Forrester’s state of IT sustainability 2023 survey and report highlighted the growing importance decarbonizing IT and the reducing the environmental impact of IT in various industries. In certain industries such as financial services, IT has an outsized contribution to overall corporate scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3 emissions.

The demand for services to decarbonize IT is surging and these services are rapidly evolving. In Forrester’s inaugural landscape and Wave assessment of this market, we examined the key service providers enterprises should consider when looking for an external partner to help with IT sustainability efforts.

First, in our landscape report, The IT Sustainability Services Landscape, Q2 2023, we looked at the evolving market dynamics, trends, and the various types of players,  – such as specialists, management consultants, accounting, and audit firms, and finally, IT services and SI firms. We identified the core business scenarios most frequently sought after by buyers and addressed by IT sustainability services. The capabilities offered by various players were mapped to these core and extended business scenarios.

In our subsequent  evaluation, The Forrester Wave™: IT Sustainability Service Providers, Q3 2023, we identified the top players, and then researched, analyzed, and scored them against a comprehensive list of criteria applicable to all industries. This included a deep dive into 28 criteria just on the providers’ current offering.

The details we sought within each of the 28 criteria serve to assess the strengths and capabilities of a given service provider’s portfolio as well as its ability to deliver end-to-end decarbonization efforts within an organization.

For each criterion and provider, we considered three aspects:

1. How providers help measure (KPIs, tools, standards)
2. How they help optimize on these measurements (identification and proven execution)
3. Benchmarking capabilities, partnerships, industry thought leadership and ecosystem.

Depending on the most important material impact areas for your organization, use this report and the attached tool to set your own weight for each criterion to identify the provider that’s the best for your organization and need. For example, if you are aware that data centers contribute the largest to your IT carbon footprint, consider a player strong in those offered capabilities for a head start in your search for the right partner.

I’m curious to hear from you your feedback and questions. Reach out to me at asunil@forrester.com or schedule an inquiry or guidance session with me.