WAN Sustainability – from Compliance to Competitive Advantage

Julie:
Hello, today is Friday, October 10^th, 2025.  I’m Julie Gardner from TC2 and this is Staying Connected.  

I’m excited for the opportunity to host our program today and to further our discussion on sustainability in enterprise network services.     I’m joined today by Tony Mangino, our regular Staying Connected host and a Director here at TC2, to get his perspective on how sustainability initiatives can impact the selection of strategic suppliers of IT services and ultimately drive competitive advantage.

Tony:
Hi Julie, thanks for having me today!  This is an important conversation because wide area networks, can be among the most energy-intensive parts of enterprise IT. We tend to think of data centers as the power hogs, but carrier infrastructure—the routers, switches, optical transport, and wireless towers— all consume staggering amounts of energy.

Green networking, carbon accounting, and energy-efficient hardware are becoming important, and quantifiable inputs for enterprises seeking to comply with ESG regulations and, as you rightly point out, drive competitive advantage.

Why WAN Sustainability Matters

Julie:
So why exactly should WAN sustainability be on every CIO and procurement leader’s radar?

Tony:
Because the pressure is mounting from all sides. Governments are setting stricter reporting requirements. Investors are asking for sustainability transparency and customers increasingly care about whether a company is meeting its climate commitments.

The WAN is also uniquely challenging. Unlike a corporate office building where you can directly control HVAC and lighting efficiency, WAN energy use is distributed across third-party carrier networks. That means enterprise customers must push their strategic suppliers to document, improve, and report on sustainability metrics.

Practical Strategies for Greener WANs

Julie:
Let’s get practical. What strategies can enterprises adopt today to reduce WAN-related environmental impact?

Tony: Well, two common sense strategies, that can be adopted immediately, come to mind…

First – Require transparency and reporting from your strategic networking and IT suppliers. Enterprise customers can require their providers to provide carbon footprint data at both global and regional levels. (if not done so already)  This should include energy usage per gigabit delivered, percentage of renewable energy powering network operations, and progress toward science-based carbon reduction targets.

Favor suppliers with verified green credentials. Look for partners with green data center certifications (LEED, ISO 50001, or equivalent), commitments to 100% renewable energy, and verified carbon offset programs. 

Procurement’s Role: Embedding Sustainability Measures in RFPs

Julie:
That’s great at a high level, but let’s go deeper into the procurement function. How do sourcing teams actually build sustainability into their RFPs for WAN services?

Tony:
Great question Julie.  This is where specific requirements, targeted inquiries and a sustainability scorecard becomes essential. It’s no longer enough to just ask, “Do you have a sustainability policy?” Enterprises need structured, measurable requirements with defined scoring weight in to enable meaningful vendor evaluation and differentiation.

Important to mention here is this is really a cross-functional exercise leveraging stakeholders from IT, Compliance and Procurement to develop specific requirements customized to your enterprise.

Here are some categories and sample requirements that might be included in a WAN RFP scorecard:

1. Energy & Carbon Metrics
   • Mandate that suppliers report total network energy consumption (MWh) annually, and that they provide energy intensity figures (kWh per terabyte transported).
   • Evaluate supplier commitments to published carbon reduction targets, and state percentage of renewable energy in network operations today and planned percentage in three years.
2. Hardware & Infrastructure Efficiency
   • Document use of Energy Star–rated or equivalent network equipment.
   • Provide lifecycle energy efficiency data for routers, switches, and other CPE.
   • Outline programs for reuse, recycling, and safe disposal of retired equipment.
3. Certifications & Compliance
   • Suppliers should indicate compliance with ISO 140001 (environmental management), and/or ISO 50001 (energy management) frameworks
   • In the alternative, suppliers should describe what systems they have in place that align with the principles of ISO 140001 or 50001 if they choose not to pursue actual certification.
4. Operations & Reporting
   • Quarterly or annual sustainability reporting specific to WAN services.
   • Commitment to annual joint reviews with enterprise sustainability teams to report on carbon and energy consumption metrics specific to the customer.

As I’ve mentioned before, I think sustainability has a bit of a soft benefits problem in procurement– there is a long-standing issue in attempting to translate soft benefits into hard dollars, such as quantifying “lost hours”.  And people roll their eyes at soft savings, and perhaps quite rightly so.  Sustainability can get caught in that trap – the hypothetical translation of soft benefits into purportedly hard dollars, when there really aren’t dollars to be saved or budgets that will be reduced.  However, by embedding these requirements into an RFP and assigning weight—whatever X%, of total evaluation score—procurement teams can begin to meaningfully include sustainability criteria in the supplier selection process.

Monitoring Progress After the Contract

Julie:
I like the emphasis on scorecards. But what happens after the RFP? How do enterprises hold suppliers accountable?

Tony:
That’s a great point. Too often, ESG clauses in contracts are “set and forget.” Instead, procurement should establish an annual review cadence where strategic suppliers report progress against their commitments.

For example:

• Suppliers can present year-over-year reductions in carbon intensity per gigabit.
• Enterprises and providers can collaborate on a roadmap to align WAN power usage with corporate energy consumption targets.
• Targets achieved or commitments missed can influence renewal decisions.

It’s about creating a feedback loop where suppliers see sustainability as a business differentiator, not just a compliance burden.

Integrating WAN Metrics into Corporate ESG Reporting

Julie:
This all ties back into corporate reporting, right? How do WAN sustainability metrics feed into the broader ESG narrative?

Tony:
Exactly. WAN energy use and carbon footprint must be integrated into the enterprise’s Scope 3 emissions reporting. That’s the category covering emissions from suppliers and partners—often the biggest portion of a company’s total footprint.

Enterprises should collaborate across IT, procurement, and sustainability functions to capture WAN power usage and embed it into corporate dashboards and annual ESG disclosures. Done right, this creates not just compliance, but competitive advantage—demonstrating to investors and customers that the company is tackling one of the hardest parts of IT sustainability.

Looking Ahead

Julie:
Before we wrap, what future trends in sustainable networking should enterprises keep an eye on?

Tony:
Several exciting ones:

• AI-driven traffic engineering that reduces redundant data flows and slashes energy usage.
• Optical transport innovations that consume less power per gigabit as backbone networks scale.
• Wider adoption of liquid cooling in network equipment, replacing inefficient air conditioning.
• Expansion of LEO satellite networks that, if powered by renewables, could provide sustainable connectivity to underserved regions.

And importantly, I expect regulators in Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific to tighten disclosure requirements. Enterprises that already have strong ESG-aligned WAN strategies will be ahead of the curve.  Worth noting that my colleague Deb Boehling from LB3 did a deep dive on the regulatory reckoning for ESG back in (month) of this year that is a must listen.

Julie:
Thanks very much for your time today, Tony, great discussion!  And if you would like to learn more about sustainability and ESG initiatives in the networking space, or if you’d like to discuss other ICT needs with Tony or me, or any of our TC2 and LB3 colleagues, please give us a call or shoot us an email.

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