The New Challenges for Sustainable IT Managers

“We have an action plan, and our goal for 2025 is to deploy it.” Proof that this topic remains a priority within organizations, Thierry Chappe, Sustainable IT Manager at Paradigm, expresses his ambition for Sustainable IT in 2025. Despite the challenges, organizations—especially public administrations—are committed to staying on track with their low-carbon trajectories.

For Thierry Chappe, “the enthusiasm within the ecosystem is still there,” but the global context, where limiting global warming is no longer a top priority for many governments and, consequently, for many organizations, has shifted discussions to other topics. “To convince stakeholders, we can no longer talk only about CO2,” he explains, “we focus on the overall impact of the sector: rare metals, e-waste, etc. That’s tangible and undeniable! When we talk about the mining sector explosion, there is no counter-argument!”

Another key theme Paradigm is emphasizing to promote a more sustainable IT approach is resilience. Resilience means ensuring organizations are not overly dependent on fragile infrastructures or can adapt their infrastructure to major unforeseen events. Anticipation is crucial, as digital infrastructures can be taken offline for multiple reasons: power supply issues, cooling failures, geopolitical instability, or cyberattacks.

“Unlike the carbon footprint issue, resilience is an immediate concern for executive management” explains Thierry Chappe, “for example, fire departments and police forces have a critical need to maintain their digital infrastructure. They cannot afford energy supply disruptions.” Therefore, developing a Sustainable IT strategy that promotes digital sobriety enhances resilience: “It complements the environmental aspect” he concludes.

A Deployment Kit for the Action Plan

In 2025, Paradigm plans to focus its efforts on deploying its action plan. “Our Sustainable IT plan is ready,” explains Thierry Chappe, “we are waiting for the appointment of the next Minister for Brussels-Capital, and we hope to present it to the government; we want to convince them to approve this plan.”

Since finalizing the action plan, Paradigm has anticipated its deployment by developing a replicable deployment kit for organizations. “We presented its prototype at GreenTech Forum Brussels in 2024, and now we are finalizing the testing with 3 administrations” Thierry Chappe details.

The kit serves primarily as a toolbox containing all the actions tested by Paradigm’s working groups over the past three years. “It also provides a five-step methodology enabling an IT manager to introduce Sustainable IT into the organization, identify key internal sponsors, engage the right stakeholders, and define tailor-made Sustainable IT roadmap” he adds.

For Thierry Chappe, the goal of this deployment kit is clear: “the project lead should not have to reinvent the wheel but instead leverage the three years of effort already put in by the working groups.” This kit is an effective way to facilitate the large-scale implementation of Sustainable IT within public administrations.

Towards the Deployment of the Action Plan

Like Paradigm, Brussels Environment has an action plan. The administration is even more committed to its implementation since recently achieving Sustainable IT Level 2 certification. “This topic remains a top priority for us. We have made numerous commitments to obtain this certification and align these commitments with our low-carbon strategy” explains Victoria Rase, Sustainable IT Coordinator at Brussels Environment.

Brussels Environment’s challenge is to track the progress of the action plan. “We will monitor, commitments, and key indicators” she states, “we will review the action plan every year.” At Brussels Environment, the Sustainable IT action plan is not only focused on environmental aspects; ethics, inclusion, and accessibility are also major themes managed by other internal coordinators.

As part of the plan’s implementation and monitoring, one of Brussels Environment’s objectives for 2025 is to better measure the impact of its decisions and align them with its low-carbon strategy. “Upstream and downstream, from equipment to data and application infrastructure, we want to improve our evaluation capacity” details Victoria Rase. This measurement challenge becomes even more pressing as AI becomes a growing concern within administrations.

AI at the core of New Concerns

For now, regarding AI, Victoria Rase is more concerned about its external deployment than its use internally within her organization: “internally, at Brussels Environment, we are well aware of the issue and strongly committed to a sober, inclusive, and ethical digital approach.”

The administration is also waiting for official guidelines before fully integrating AI tools. For now, the topic is mainly handled by the information security team, which organizes awareness sessions on best practices and the risks AI poses to sensitive data. The team is also working on usage standards—establishing what AI can be used for internally and how it should be implemented.

“We are also organizing a conference on Sustainable AI in partnership with ISIT-BE, Paradigm, and Hub Brussels during Digital Cleanup Week on March 11 at noon,” adds Victoria Rase. The Brussels regional administration aims to demonstrate a unified approach and a commitment to addressing AI’s challenges responsibly, fostering internal and external discussions.

Paradigm is actively involved in organizing this conference, as AI also raises concerns internally. Thierry Chappe, Sustainable IT Manager at Paradigm, shares his thoughts: “from a Sustainable IT perspective, AI is currently a concern. Everything is accelerating—energy consumption, semiconductor supply stress, and so on. We’ve already seen all the major net-zero 2030 ambitions from big tech collapse.”

Given AI’s promises, Paradigm and the Brussels Region seek to proactively engage with the topic rather than being left behind. “We are testing AI business cases and tools to explore how AI can support the useful digital in the region” says Thierry Chappe, “for now, it’s in its early stages, with some chatbot implementations, for example.”

Ultimately, Thierry Chappe believes that data and evaluation will be the key to making informed decisions about AI. “There’s a wave, a tsunami, and the gains achieved through Sustainable IT risk being offset by AI. But today, we lack the data to evaluate this footprint” he concludes, “Paradigm’s priority this year is to build a solid, data-driven argument on AI’s impact to bring Sustainable IT back to the forefront.”

If AI threatens to disrupt digital sustainability efforts, one thing remains certain: the environmental footprint of digital technologies has never been so visible. It is up to Sustainable IT professionals to keep pushing forward, ensuring that minimizing digital environmental impact remains a top priority within organizations.

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Thierry Chappe is Sustainable IT Director at Paradigm.

Victoria Rase is Sustainable IT coordinator at BrusselsEnvironment.

They are also both members of the GreenTech Forum Brussels 2025 Program Committee.

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