Barco ClickShare Survey Reveals IT Leaders Struggle to Drive Sustainability Goals Amid Leadership Roadblocks

Despite 98% of IT leaders setting sustainability KPIs, leadership indifference and integration challenges slow progress.

KORTRIJK, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Barco ClickShare, a global leader in meeting room technology solutions, today announced findings from its latest survey of IT professionals. The data highlights a growing gap between personal and organizational sustainability priorities; despite overwhelming agreement that IT teams should drive meaningful sustainability efforts, more than half of IT leaders feel unsupported in achieving those goals.

• Leading challenges include:
  • Complexity of integrating sustainable solutions with existing systems (44%)
  • Lack of information about sustainable options (37%).
  • Difficulty measuring sustainability ROI (34%).
• 61% of respondents strongly agree the IT department should lead the way in achieving a company’s sustainability goals.
• More than half (56%) of IT leaders believe they’re the ones who care the most about IT sustainability at their company.
• 94% of IT purchasing decisions require multi stakeholder approval, including the C-Suite in 49% of cases.

Global sustainability initiatives and ESG reporting are putting increased pressure on businesses to act. However, IT leaders still face significant hurdles in aligning these goals with their daily operations, as well as demonstrating the value of sustainable purchasing decisions track towards broader organizational goals and priorities.

The survey found that input from many stakeholders across organizations is core to IT procurement processes - including C-suite approval in 49% of cases. However, only 15% of respondents noted C-Suite leaders appear to care most about sustainability in IT, revealing a lag in commitment to sustainability may come from the top.

In new purchasing decisions, sustainability certifications are a top-three consideration alongside security and cost, yet 37% of decision makers are challenged by a lack of information about sustainable options when seeking out new equipment. Beyond identifying solutions, IT teams face complexity integrating sustainable solutions with existing systems (44%) and difficulty measuring the impact of sustainable implementations (34%) as leading deterrents to implementing sustainable technology solutions, underpinning potential reasons for the lack of leadership buy-in.

As organizations invest in AI initiatives that may increase their carbon footprint, respondents highlighted two key areas for improvement: enhancing energy efficiency in IT operations (57%) and boosting employee awareness and engagement with IT sustainability (46%). Nearly two-thirds (65%) of IT leaders say purchasing equipment with sustainability-related certifications is the top priority to achieve their department’s KPIs, followed by extending the lifecycle of IT hardware through maintenance and upgrades (61%) and targets for increasing energy efficiency (54%).

“The findings reveal a clear mandate for IT teams and underscore the urgent need for better support from internal leadership to enable sustainability as a priority within IT operations,” said Dan Root, Head of Global Strategic Alliances at Barco. “To make real progress and showcase the financial benefits of sustainable technology, vendors must prioritize comprehensive assessments that transparently communicate environmental and operational impacts—such as power consumption in all scenarios—and focus on partnerships that empower seamless integrations into existing software ecosystems.”

For a full overview of Barco’s survey of 500 full-time enterprise IT decision makers in the US conducted in October 2024, read the blog, ”Everyday IT decisions can drive environmental progress, or hold it back.”

About Barco

Barco, headquartered in Kortrijk (Belgium), is a global company leading in visualization, networking, and collaboration technology. Its innovative solutions drive advancements in the healthcare, enterprise, and entertainment markets. At the heart of Barco’s success are over 3,000 dedicated ‘visioneers’, each passionately contributing to driving change through technology.

Listed on Euronext (BAR), Reuters (BARBt.BR), and Bloomberg (BAR BB), Barco realized sales of 1,050 million euro in 2023. For further insights, please visit www.barco.com or connect on X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.

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