On 26th November 2024, within the Innovation Camp organized by Gabrovo Municipality,10 companies, predominantly from the IT sector, from the region of Gabrovo discussed the importance of sustainability.
The first issue addressed was “What sustainability challenges do you face considering the three aspects of sustainability – economic, environmental and social?”. The following challenges were outlined:
- Energy Consumption. Svetoslav Mateev, owner of Senstate, said “Data centers and cloud services require significant energy to operate and cool. The growing demand for computing power can lead to increased carbon footprints and high operational costs.”
- E-Waste. “The rapid pace of technological advancement leads to high turnover rates for devices, contributing to electronic waste and putting financial pressure on companies to continually invest in the latest technologies.”, commented Rumen Kolev, CEO of Elna.
- Resource Depletion. All participants agreed that the production of hardware involves the extraction of finite natural resources, such as rare earth metals, which leads to supply chain vulnerabilities and increased costs.
- Supply Chain Sustainability. Some participants mentioned that the complexity of global supply chains poses challenges in ensuring sustainable practices and ethical sourcing throughout every stage of production. Todor Todorov, IT expert in P3 Grafixoft, added that “Geopolitical tensions, trade restrictions and varying economic conditions across regions lead to disruption of supply chains and market access”.
- Cybersecurity threats. Rising cyberattacks and data breaches can lead to financial losses and reputational damage, as well as increased costs for security measures and potential regulatory fines.
- Regulatory Compliance: Most companies said that stricter regulations regarding sustainability, environmental impact and data privacy require companies to adapt quickly, often necessitating significant changes in operations and strategy, which also contributes to increasing costs.
- Talent shortage. All companies mentioned that the shortage of IT professionals increases salary expectations thus raising operational costs. In addition, Harry Bogdanov, business development expert in Technoles noted that “talent shortage leads to potential project delays”.
- Client expectations and customization. As Sonya Petkova, CEO in STS Print voiced “Clients demand more customized solutions and faster delivery, which increases project complexity and resource allocation”.
The second issue considered was “Do you think that your stakeholders (clients, investors, employees, suppliers” are interested in the three aspects of your sustainability effort?”.
The participants strongly believe that all stakeholders are interested in their economic sustainability. Some of the opinions shared are as follows:
“Business clients consider a company’s financial health as a risk factor in long-term partnerships.”
“End-users want IT companies to be financially stable and capable of providing continuous service, updates and support for their products.”
“Employees value the financial stability of the companies as it directly impacts their job security, career development opportunities and competitive compensation.”
“Suppliers prioritize working with financially stable companies to ensure long-term partnerships and consistent demand for their products and services.”
As far as the environmental aspect is concerned, the participants commented that “young customers are becoming more eco-conscious in terms of energy-consumption of IT products” and “young employees are more environmentally concerned, and they prefer to work for companies which use renewable energy resources and participate in local green initiatives.” Svetoslav Mateev added “If the suppliers are aligned with global sustainability goals, they often seek partnerships with companies that have strong environmental policies.”
Most participants think that investors are interested in the 3 aspects of sustainability, as the social aspect is paid less attention while the environmental aspect is gaining more and more popularity. Iva Hinkova, IT expert in Mechatronica, mentioned that “Companies that align with these goals are more likely to attract investment from ESG-focused funds.”
According to the participants the social aspect is underestimate by customers and suppliers, but it is highly valued by employees since they appreciate companies which prioritize their well-being and offer equity inclusion.
The third issue tackled was “Do you know ways to self-assess your sustainability effort to prepare your sustainability report?”.
Some of the companies have already used ARIES4 self-assessment tool. The others said, “We have some knowledge of sustainability frameworks, but we do not know any available tools.”
Therefore, Svetoslav Mateev made a short demo of ARIES4 self-assessment tool, and the company reps appreciated it and expressed their willingness to use it.
Radion Umnikov, IT expert in Avans, noted “We also need tools that merge digitalization to sustainability.”.
