Green IT is no longer a gadget for many companies, especially for regulatory reasons. At Societe Generale, responsible digital is an integral part of the IT strategy.
In 2019, the bank launched a cross-functional “Green IS” program. This aims in particular to reduce CO2 emissions from digital technology by 50% by 2025. And this is no small feat for a multinational with multiple activities, recognizes Stéphane Leclercq.
SG has its own calculator
The director of innovation and digital responsible for the company spoke about the bank’s ambitions at the DIMS/IT Paris 2023 conference. should be accounted for on their own account. But that’s not all,” he says.
“The bigger and more international the group, the more challenging it is to measure the impact of digital technology,” continues the executive of the French company, which devotes an annual budget of 4 billion euros to IT.
It also employs 25,000 IT staff. It wants to establish itself as a benchmark on the responsible digital front. To demonstrate this, it began by making “public commitments” – which may be subject to external audits, in particular by the ECB.
These promises: to be carbon neutral in 2050, to reduce its CO2 emissions by 50% between 2019 and 2030 (on its own account, including real estate, travel and IT, among other things). On IT, the deadline is closer with a targeted reduction of 50% by 2025.
Aggressive IT on lowering its consumption
“If we have taken the lead compared to own account, it is because of the acceleration of our digital transformation. So we are always adding more digital. That’s why we had to be even more aggressive”, explains Stéphane Leclercq.
Societe Generale has finally committed to stopping the consumption of single-use plastic in work environments by 2025. The financial group’s IT will therefore make its contribution to achieving these objectives.
The bank has been working on it since 2019, using in particular a C02 calculator and replacing the infrastructures in its data centers in favor of less consuming equipment. Training of 25,000 IT employees, analysis of the life cycle of data, eco-design are all solutions used.
The head of innovation nevertheless testified to the difficulties encountered, particularly with regard to measurement on the different scopes (1, 2 and 3). On scope 3, for example, the consumption of outsourced resources, such as the public cloud, is counted.
Data from cloud providers deemed unreliable
To carry out its operations, the company’s teams worked on the design of a computer for almost 2 years. The tool is activated twice a year. “Today, the level is sufficiently precise for the France perimeter. The 2023 objective is to achieve this same level of quality internationally. »
And there is no question of relying on the data provided by the providers, who offer their own calculators. “They are much, much too positive,” says the director of innovation. In terms of responsible digital, he recalls that data, its quality, its persistence and its availability are critical levers.
“For an international group like Société Générale, it is key to set up data governance and identified data owners, responsible for extractions, but also for understanding the data,” he insists.