Study Says Technology Is Key to Successful Business Sustainability in Southeast Asia

JAKARTA - Kyndryl, the world's largest provider of IT infrastructure services, announced new findings from the recently launched 'Kyndryl ASEAN Digital Transformation Study 2022', in collaboration with technology research and advisory firm Ecosystem.

This study aims to outline the key business priorities and technology trends in ASEAN companies, including their sustainability goals.

Five hundred C-level leaders across ASEAN participated in this study. Despite a greater focus on sustainability, organizations still lack holistic strategies and are grappling with how to integrate their data to set science-based targets, while navigating external challenges such as tighter regulations.

Some of the key insights from studies highlighting the state of sustainable organizations in ASEAN include:

Data is a Key Challenge for Sustainability Initiatives

The study found that the main barriers to sustainability projects in ASEAN were, 60 percent operational costs, 55 percent data availability, and 50 percent lack of dedicated resources.

In today's data-driven world, it is quite possible that organizations have access to the data they need for their sustainability efforts.

However, this is often not integrated into their overall data strategy which helps identify the right datasets, collects the necessary data across all operations, and has embedded analytics for the right insights.

Media & Telecommunications Industry More Advanced

When sustainability initiatives are not yet mature enough, some industries take the lead by using their strategies, especially for their initiatives.

Media-Telecommunication and Energy-Utilities for example, are among the most mature industries given the incentives to adopt sustainable practices with regard to costs and for future viability.

Industries that have embarked on small, eco-friendly steps have also found some early success and include the Retail industry where there has been a focus on reducing the use of plastic in packaging and sourcing locally to reduce the carbon footprint.

"This study highlights how a consistent lack of data can hinder an organization's sustainability planning," said Ullrich Loeffler, CEO of Ecosystem in a release received in Jakarta.

As ASEAN is predicted to become the fourth largest economy in the world by 2030, Sean Lee, Managing Director, Kyndryl Indonesia said that there is a huge responsibility for businesses in the region to balance the long-term imperative of a net-zero future. with the short-term need to maintain its bottom line.

“I strongly believe that the success of sustainability lies in how well an organization can integrate its people, processes and technology to achieve common goals,” he added.