How tech can lead a nature-positive future
- Vanessa Miler-Fels, Maeve Hall, Tracy Harfouche
- 08 Jan 2026
- 3 min read
11,000data centers operational in the world
1 trillionsemiconductors sold and used annually
<5%of Fortune Global 100 companies have assessed their impacts on nature
The technology sector stands at a pivotal crossroad. Technology shapes every facet of everyday life, with over 11,000 data centers operational in the world, powering connected life from access to digital services, cloud computing and storage, online transactions, streaming, AI applications and business continuity. Smartphones, cars and most modern equipment use over 1 trillion semiconductors annually.
Its explosive growth has delivered transformative innovation, yet it carries a significant ecological burden. From semiconductor manufacturing to data centers and hardware production, the industry’s intensive water use, land use, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions put unprecedented pressure on nature.
However, the relationship between business and nature often remains overlooked: while 78% of Fortune Global 100 companies have climate change targets, less than 5% of them have assessed their impacts on nature and less than 1% understand their dependencies on nature.
This challenge presents a unique opportunity for the technology sector to lead a transition to sustainable growth, where businesses mitigate their environmental impact while unlocking cost savings and long-term resilience.
By anticipating the risks of nature loss for their operations, tech companies will minimize disruption, comply with incoming regulatory requirements, proactively manage dependencies on ecosystem services and assets, and seize early nature-related opportunities.
The World Economic Forum explores and demonstrates a practical pathway for a sustainable growth of tech companies:
1- Advance resilient, closed-loop systems and restorative water use
2- Pursue circularity in sourcing and design choices, and mitigate pollution
3- Tackle non-power operational and embodied emissions with technologies and credible removal schemes
4- Promote land stewardship and biodiversity restoration
5- Prioritize low-carbon power and energy efficiency
6- Engage with the supply chain to establish expectations and priorities
7- Report on nature-related impacts and dependencies, support policymaking and engage with customers
A Microsoft and Schneider Electric case study
Driving innovation in data center cooling- Microsoft conducted an in-depth life-cycle assessment of data center cooling technologies, based on the shift from air-cooling to advanced liquid-cooling methods.
- As rack density increases, liquid-cooling enables more compact racks without requiring equivalent increases in equipment, reducing both nature impacts and costs for data center operators.
A study by Schneider Electric demonstrated that moving from air-cooling to liquid- cooling:
- has a potential for reductions in GHG emissions (15-21%), energy demand (15-20%) and blue water consumption (31-48%), in a 100% grid electricity scenario.
- enables similar reductions in GHG emissions (13-20%) and energy demand (15-20%), but a considerably greater reduction in blue water consumption of 50-82%, in a 100% renewable energy scenario. A 10 MW data center could see annual savings of $1.0-1.4 million in energy costs and $220,000-365,000 in water costs.
Through early leadership, the technology sector will not only mitigate these risks, but also influence the broader ecosystem and help build nature-positive systems that are vital for the digital economy to thrive.
- The World Economic Forum report “Nature positive: Role of the technology sector” shows that undertaking priority actions for the technology sector could unlock about $800 billion in cost savings and revenue upside by 2030.
- Find out more about real-life solutions that are both technically feasible and commercially viable, enabling tech companies to embrace the nature-positive transition across their operations and value chain.
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