Kyndryl’s Faith Taylor talks about how businesses are approaching sustainability in regard to AI and her predictions for tech sustainability in 2026.
Late last year, IT infrastructure services provider Kyndryl released the 2025 edition of its Global Sustainability Barometer report – where 1,286 enterprise leaders across 20 countries and nine industries were surveyed about their environmental objectives and frameworks.
Conducted between August and September of 2025, the report had some positive findings.
66pc of surveyed businesses maintained or increased their environmental goals and programme execution, compared to 35pc that slowed down their environmental efforts.
In terms of artificial intelligence, as workplaces increasingly integrate AI, there was an increase in the percentage of organisations that consider the environmental impact of implementing AI technology.
Faith Taylor, chief sustainability officer at Kyndryl, told SiliconRepublic.com that AI is becoming “increasingly central” to businesses’ environmental frameworks, with the technology being used for tasks such as monitoring energy use and forecasting.
“It’s a good indicator for greater positivity as deployment and proven results grow,” said Taylor. “It’s a critical opportunity for businesses to move from mere passive monitoring to gaining the predictive insights that can drive real change.”
Here Taylor talks more about sustainability in tech and the report.
What are the main sustainability concerns of AI use?
AI’s rapid adoption across all business sectors is increasing energy and water demand, particularly from energy intensive data centres and when training large models. In 2024 global energy demand rose 2.2pc, driven partly by a 20pc jump in data centre capacity. AI is hungry, and so any argument that presents it as a route through the climate crisis needs to be persuasive.
80pc of organisations acknowledge technology’s role in sustainability, but so far only 32pc feel they effectively harness its full potential. This signals a need for greater integration and adoption of AI-driven sustainability solutions.
Faith Taylor. Image: Kyndryl
How are businesses approaching sustainability in terms of AI?
More businesses now consider the environmental impact of AI, rising from 35pc last year to 43pc according to the Barometer. Yet only 21pc fully integrate technology to reduce their carbon footprint, indicating a divide between those embedding sustainability into AI and IT processes versus those treating it as an afterthought. The ‘afterthought’ firms can take a lesson from the integration-focused organisations that are outperforming, using AI to automate emissions tracking, optimise resource use and inform strategic decisions.
There are great use cases running right now. Predictive maintenance is reducing waste and extending equipment life cycles in manufacturing. Smart grid optimisation is improving efficiency and integrating renewables within the energy sector. Across transportation, route optimisation algorithms are minimising fuel consumption. And in buildings, intelligent systems are reducing energy usage right now. We’re just at the beginning of AI’s sustainability journey.
How can businesses reduce or offset the negative climate effects of AI usage?
Industry must design AI systems with better energy efficiency, sourcing cleaner power and optimising workloads intelligently. Best practice includes assessing the carbon impact at every stage of the AI life cycle and embedding energy-use baselines into infrastructure planning.
The Barometer data also suggests how AI can be part of the solution: Agentic AI is already being used (9pc are already deploying, and 22pc are actively piloting/implementing AI use cases) to automate energy reduction across buildings, supply chains and operations by some organisations – though care must be taken about the energy use of the solutions used so as not to lower overall sustainability gains.
What are your main predictions for tech sustainability in 2026?
2026 should be a year of delivery, not greenwashing with spurious AI claims thrown in. AI investments will yield tangible environmental benefits for the businesses that have diligently embedded sustainability into their tech architecture. The Barometer supports this, showing the strongest progress in firms that link sustainability goals to business outcomes: 54pc of these cite measurable ROI or new revenue as the driver for climate action, which is a strong way of ensuring active progress endures.
There has been general consistent progress over the years of the survey. We expect that most businesses will soon associate sustainability with their internal technology expertise and link emissions reduction and revenue growth, through consistent and proactive sustainability initiatives. As AI’s part in sustainability matures, it will grow its positive role.
How do you think 2026 will fare compared to 2025 in terms of tech sustainability in the business world?
2026 is likely to mark a tipping point. Our Barometer suggests that many businesses are moving beyond compliance into proactive, AI-enabled environmental strategies. Given how central AI is to business strategies, it must also become core to future sustainability success. We’re talking going beyond tracking emissions and into redesigning business models and reducing Scope 3 impact. Progress will depend on stronger integration across IT, sustainability and finance functions – currently a gap in many firms – and technology like AI or simpler automation can be an efficient enabler of stronger compliance and process workflows.
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