CIRA has announced its new environmental sustainability strategy to do its part to reduce the environmental impact of the organisation’s operations and promote a greener internet in Canada. The initiative is a key element of CIRA’s current five-year strategic plan to work towards more sustainable operations and help Canada achieve its climate change goals. The environmental sustainability strategy encompasses three pillars, green workplace, green operations and green internet.
The company is a member of the Ottawa Green Business Network, joining a community of Ottawa businesses that have made a commitment to reduce emissions. In the first year of its strategy, the company is prioritising sustainability in its operations, which includes accurately measuring environmental impact across their global data centres.
CIRA will commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from data centres through data collection, energy consumption reduction protocols and prioritising data centre locations with lower grid emissions intensity, where viable. This pillar relates to advancing efforts towards a greener internet in collaboration with external partners. This includes funding climate-action related internet projects, including green data centre research, collaborating with suppliers to provide a clear environmental policy and sustainability credentials as well as reporting on the company’s progress towards its sustainability performance.
“We have seen how the internet led to fundamental changes in our society during the pandemic,” Byron Holland, president and CEO of CIRA, said. “Changes that lessened our reliance on fossil fuels, such as fewer cars on the road and less air travel. The internet has proven to be a massive positive force for environmental sustainability. Now we must strive to make the Canadian internet itself green.”
“A green internet means efficient operations and a focus on procurement that considers sustainability at its core,” Jane Fulford, chief operating officer for CIRA, said. “From the data centres that power our global DNS infrastructure to our global business travel, we’re doing our part to reduce emissions by making the necessary changes in our operations to minimise our environmental impact.”
