Powering and Protecting Life Online with Nature-Positive Action

Figure: The axolotl, a critically endangered species, has the ability to regrow its body organs and limbs and has been a superstar in medical research and discoveries.

The effects of climate change are becoming more apparent each day, and it is evident that our actions as humans have disrupted the natural balance of our planet. Climate change has led to significant biodiversity loss, causing substantial concern. 

As climate change continues to transform, it is clear that "we" (assuming all reading this are human 😉) have altered our planet's natural balance and contributed to the biodiversity loss that is accelerating at an alarming rate. 

According to the World Economic Forum, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse is viewed as one of the fastest deteriorating global risks over the next decade. Biodiversity loss risks humanity's well-being in both the short and long terms. There is no question that businesses and global supply chains contribute to biodiversity loss each day. Society should actively monitor and evaluate these effects more thoroughly to consciously help reverse and implement a more deliberate approach to  coexisting with nature. 

At Akamai, we recognize that the loss of biodiversity could affect our global supply chain, operations, and the communities in which we live, work, and operate in various and potentially unpredictable ways. 

With Akamai’s sustainability mission to guide us — “Harnessing the power of Akamai Connected Cloud to create a sustainable and equitable future for the world” — we are assessing our value chain to understand our exposure to risks associated with biodiversity loss, to diminish our impact on biodiversity loss, and to create a strategic approach to implement nature-positive practices.

Akamai’s environmental aspects related to biodiversity loss include:

• Consuming power across our global operations

• Purchasing and disposing of hardware

• Housing, maintaining, and operating our network equipment

As the world’s most distributed network, we run into challenges as we evaluate and act on each of these aspects. Akamai has a unique business structure: We do not manufacture the hardware used across our platform and our operations are primarily in leased data center space.

The question we have had to ask ourselves is: How can we deliver on Akamai’s sustainability mission, and mitigate the risks of biodiversity loss, while operating with limited control of physical spaces?

Our ability to make a positive impact relies on our partnerships and supply chain engagement. Partnership is fundamental to Akamai’s sustainability program. As a result of the unique structure of Akamai’s operations, it is important that we work closely with our suppliers and data center partners to bring awareness to the risks associated with biodiversity loss and to ensure that the dependencies within Akamai’s value chain are not jeopardized.  

We are also focused on delivering business results the right way through a robust Responsible Supply Chain Program (RSCP). Through the RSCP, we are taking action to understand where our suppliers are in their sustainability journeys to see how we can help them align with Akamai’s corporate values, including nature-positive practices.

As I analyze Akamai’s impact related to biodiversity, my confidence grows that the sustainability goals Akamai has set to reach by 2030 target our largest impact areas and are grounded in responsibility and significance.

We have set out to achieve a 100% renewable platform with net-zero emissions, with the goal of mitigating the impact of our global power consumption. We currently recycle 100% of our e-waste — and we plan to continue to ensure that any e-waste that comes from the Akamai Connected Cloud is reused when possible or responsibly disposed of at the end of its useful life.

I am pleased that Akamai is not a contributor to the improper disposal and inadequate recycling of e-waste that contributes to soil and water contamination by releasing toxins that harm our ecosystems.

Sustainability is an exciting field in which to work as best practices, data availability, and our understanding of our impact are always evolving. Akamai’s sustainability program is also always evolving as we strive to accurately account for our environmental impact. We track our Scope 3 emissions and provide resources such as our carbon calculator for our customers who use our distributed edge and cloud platform.

We are also exploring opportunities to better understand our biodiversity and environmental impacts and risks at individual locations in our operations. As data quality advances and guidance is developed for the information and communications technology industry, we will continue to update our approach.

Maintaining biodiversity is crucial for our health and prosperity on Earth. The current trend of diminishing biodiversity worldwide is concerning and poses a risk to everyone. Akamai is working diligently to adopt more considerate nature-friendly practices throughout our business operations so we can do our part to reduce our impact on biodiversity.