Amazon, Nokia & IBM: Using AI to Lead on Sustainability

Amid growing regulatory and stakeholder pressure for transparent climate commitments, corporate leaders are looking beyond compliance and toward strategic integration.

As disclosure requirements tighten, particularly within the EU, some of the world’s largest technology firms are demonstrating a leadership model that embeds sustainability into the core of their operations.

Companies including IBM, Nokia and Amazon are leveraging AI and data analytics not just to meet mandates but to foster efficiency and innovation, treating sustainability as a fundamental business challenge that demands precise measurement and continuous optimisation.

Integrating analytics into core operations

For some organisations, leadership in sustainability involves providing the tools for the entire industry to advance. IBM has taken such a route, integrating sustainability analytics directly into its software and consulting services.

Using platforms like Envizi and its Maximo Application Suite, IBM enables clients to track their own emissions and manage asset lifecycles, positioning these tools as vital for any enterprise looking to understand its environmental footprint.

This approach extends across complex supply chains, facilities management and IT infrastructure, informing environmental risk assessments and decisions on resource efficiency.

IBM’s strategy frames sustainability as an integral component of its hybrid cloud and AI growth, with research and development investments targeted at combining governance features with technical infrastructure.

Christina Shim, Chief Sustainability Officer at IBM, describes how deeply embedded these priorities have become, saying: “Sustainability is not just a feel-good word here, it is in our DNA."

Decoupling growth from environmental impact

For a business defined by global scale and growth, leadership could mean rewriting the metrics of success. Amazon’s strategy centres on carbon intensity, a metric that measures emissions relative to gross merchandise sales.

This allows the company to track its environmental efficiency even as its absolute operational footprint expands. According to its 2024 report, the figure reached 72.6g of CO2 equivalent per dollar of GMS.

While overall emissions have grown with the business, this metric points to an effort to decouple that growth from its environmental impact. Amazon uses AI to optimise packaging, improve product sizing recommendations and identify energy inefficiencies.

For its AWS data centres, Amazon reports a Power Usage Effectiveness rating of 1.15, a measure of energy efficiency in computing infrastructure. This data-driven approach is presented as an extension of Amazon's core values.

Kara Hurst, Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at Amazon, says: “Sustainability is not separate from our customer obsession – it’s an extension of it."

Addressing value chain emissions through product innovation

Proactive leadership also requires a deep understanding of where a company’s greatest impact lies. Nokia’s approach, guided by the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, involved a double materiality assessment to identify key ESG topics for its business and society.

The analysis produced a crucial finding: 95% of Nokia’s greenhouse gas emissions originate from the use of its products by customers, which are classified as Scope 3 emissions.

This insight has refocused Nokia's focus from its own direct operations to improving the energy efficiency of its technology. With a target to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 50% by 2030 from a 2019 baseline, Nokia reported a 36% reduction by 2024.

Subho Mukherjee, Vice President and Global Head of Sustainability at Nokia, frames the challenge in terms that go beyond quarterly results: “Digital technologies underpin critical aspects of our lives, but we have a responsibility to ensure the cost of these benefits is not paid for by future generations,” he says.

This long-term perspective on technological stewardship and its consequences could be a defining characteristic of leadership in the digital age.