Accenture (NYSE: ACN) today launched Green Cloud Advisor, a new capability for the Accenture myNav platform that enables enterprises to operate more sustainable and efficient cloud environments.

“Every company now needs to master change at speed and scale to benefit not only shareholders and employees but also our communities and planet”

myNav Green Cloud Advisor helps companies design cloud solutions that reduce carbon emissions and lay a foundation for responsible innovation. First, Green Cloud Advisor establishes a baseline of existing data center energy consumption, computing requirements and sustainability goals. It then uses proprietary algorithms to quantify the “greenness” of potential cloud solution options, based on a range of information, such as the cloud service providers’ carbon emissions goals, locations, energy sources and readiness to transition to clean energy.

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Research from Accenture has found that shifting from on-premise data centers to the public cloud can reduce an enterprise’s energy usage by 65% and cut carbon emissions by more than 84%. Migrating existing private workloads to a public cloud could reduce global CO₂ emissions by nearly 60 million tons annually — equivalent to taking 22 million gasoline-powered cars off the road.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Canada’s national housing agency, has dramatically reduced the carbon footprint of its IT operations. CMHC has undertaken, with Accenture, a major IT transformation, including a transition to the cloud, that has resulted in a reduction of its IT-related CO2 emissions by more than 80%.

“Every company now needs to master change at speed and scale to benefit not only shareholders and employees but also our communities and planet,” said Kishore Durg, who leads Accenture Cloud First Global Services. “As companies accelerate cloud adoption, myNav Green Cloud Advisor can help them simultaneously address one of their most pressing challenges, which is to reduce emissions and waste with greener IT practices.”

To help organizations measure carbon emissions against industry peers, Accenture is teaming with an applied research team at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to establish a carbon emissions scoring system and certification for green cloud solutions. In order to help clients design, implement and operate the most sustainable cloud environments, Accenture is also working with CMU on a new cloud training program to upskill its Cloud First professionals to help organizations achieve a balance of cloud innovation and green computing practices.

“Energy usage and carbon emissions are becoming part of the design requirements of future technology solutions,” said Majd Sakr, teaching professor in the Computer Science Department at CMU’s School of Computer Science. “Institutions will have to build capacity and leverage innovative green IT tools to better measure, optimize and report their energy usage and carbon emissions.”

Additionally, Accenture has teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management to create a training program for Accenture Cloud First leaders that delves deeper into the cloud’s role in enhancing speed to market, cost management, flexibility of operations, business resilience and innovation capabilities. The Green Cloud Advisors Program is a three-day virtual course where participants will learn about opportunities associated with cloud solutions, from energy efficiency and carbon reduction to new business models and product and service innovations.

Announced in November 2019, the Accenture myNav platform helps organizations navigate the cloud with confidence by selecting the optimal cloud architecture and solution, executing cloud migration, and managing and optimizing the cloud estate. myNav helps companies manage the human, technology and business dimensions of cloud change. Green Cloud Advisor is one of the many modules within the myNav platform designed to address the complexities of cloud for digital transformation

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