As Cognizant continues its active involvement across key Government Digital Sustainability Alliance (GDSA) working groups, the importance of collective action on digital sustainability has only intensified.
AI-driven innovation is accelerating across the public sector, bringing clear opportunities alongside growing environmental impacts. The challenge is no longer whether digital technologies can deliver transformation, but how that transformation can be achieved responsibly – balancing innovation with environmental sustainability.
Ahead of the 3rd GDSA Summit later this February, Vanessa Soames, Social Value Director for the UK Public Sector, and Niklas Johansson, Client Relationship Manager for Defra at Cognizant, examine why sustained collaboration through the GDSA remains essential to addressing the environmental impacts of emerging technologies, particularly AI, while supporting responsible digital transformation across government.
The environmental reality of AI
One stark truth about generative AI is still too often overlooked: a single query using a large language model can consume up to ten times more energy than a standard internet search. As AI adoption grows across government and industry, its demands on energy, compute and water – particularly for cooling data centres – create environmental pressures that cannot be treated as secondary considerations.
These impacts are becoming increasingly visible. The UK Government Sustainable ICT blog on AI’s thirst for water, highlights how waterusage isnow recognised alongside carbon and energy as a critical sustainability risk. Cognizant’s contribution to this work reflects a broader shift in the digital sustainability conversation: moving beyond narrow emissions metrics towards a more holistic understanding of planetary impact.
This growing awareness reinforces the importance of collaborative forums such as the GDSA, where shared challenges can be addressed collectively rather than in isolation.
Sustained engagement across the GDSA working groups
Cognizant remains an active contributor across three GDSA working groups: Sustainability Standards for AI, Planetary Impact, and Scope 3 Emissions. This breadth of engagement reflects our belief that sustainable digital transformation requires joined up thinking across technology design, infrastructure and supply chains.
Our participation is led by subject matter experts with deep domain knowledge:
- Dr Neel Savani, Director of Cognizant's Gen AI Innovation Studio and former NASA researcher, represents Cognizant in the Sustainability Standards for AI working group.
- Alexandra Kis, Social Value Manager with a focus on environmental sustainability, contributes to the Planetary Impact working group.
- Chandan Singh, Lead Product Consultant, brings insight and rigour to discussions on Scope 3 emissions.
Together, they reflect our conviction that meaningful progress starts with individual expertise, supported by organisational commitment and long-term focus.
Collaboration across competitive boundaries
Established by Defra and launched at COP27 in November 2022, the GDSA brings together government departments, suppliers, academia and industry experts to ensure that the government’s digital infrastructure and supply chains are responsible, resilient, free from exploitation, and deliver environmental, social and economic value.
What continues to make the GDSA distinctive is its collaborative model. Organisations that compete in the market work side by side, recognising a fundamental truth: no single organisation can address the environmental impacts of digital technology alone. Shared standards, transparency and collective action are essential.
As AI moves from experimentation into operational deployment across the public sector, this collaborative approach has become not just valuable, but necessary.
Embedding sustainability into the design and deployment of AI
AI presents one of the clearest examples of the tension between technological advancement and environmental responsibility. While AI offers powerful tools to tackle complex societal and operational challenges, its resource intensity demands careful governance and design.
Cognizant brings substantial experience to this conversation, supported by more than 75 AI-related patents and extensive work with clients across the private and public sectors. Through the Sustainability Standards for AI working group, we are helping to shape frameworks that consider the full lifecycle of AI systems.
This includes practical considerations such as:
- The efficiency of underlying code and model design
- Data centre site decisions that account for water scarcity and local environmental constraints
- Smart power and workload management to reduce unnecessary energy consumption
Embedding sustainability into AI systems from the outset, rather than treating it as an afterthought, is critical to ensuring innovation and responsibility advance together.
Broader planetary and supply chain impacts
Beyond AI, Cognizant’s participation in the Planetary Impact working group enables contributions to wider discussions on energy conservation, waste reduction and climate resilience within government ICT operations. The group’s ambition to establish a consistent framework for assessing and reducing planetary impacts aligns closely with our experience delivering digital and smart infrastructure solutions that improve resource efficiency at scale.
The Scope 3 Emissions working group addresses another complex but essential challenge: understanding and reducing emissions across extended supply chains. For many organisations, the majority of their environmental impact sits beyond direct operations. Progress here depends on shared data standards, robust reporting and coordinated action across interconnected ecosystems.
From commitments to evidence-based action
Across both the public and private sectors, sustainability conversations are shifting. Broad pledges and long-term ambitions are increasingly giving way to demonstrable progress supported by credible data.
At the same time, some organisations are becoming more cautious in how they communicate sustainability efforts, a trend sometimes referred to as “green hush”. While understandable, the risk is that organisations disengage from collaborative forums like the GDSA precisely when openness, shared learning and transparency are most needed.
At Cognizant, our focus remains on practical, evidence-based action. We are committed to reducing our own environmental footprint while supporting clients to do the same. This requires strong data foundations, effective controls and a whole-business approach that embeds sustainability into decision-making rather than treating it as a parallel activity.
Looking ahead
The GDSA provides a vital platform to align digital transformation with the UK government’s Net Zero Government Initiative. As the alliance looks ahead to its 2030 vision – encompassing circularity, net zero progress, planetary impact, social value, climate resilience and cross-supply-chain collaboration – sustained cooperation across traditional boundaries will be essential.
Cognizant remains committed to contributing its technological expertise, delivery experience and environmental focus to this collective effort. By continuing to work collaboratively, practising what we advocate, and embedding sustainability into innovation from the outset, digital technologies can become a force for environmental good rather than an additional burden on the planet’s finite resources.
The challenges are significant, but they are matched by our shared capacity for innovation and positive change.
