From Compliance to Competitive Advantage

By 2025, sustainability in Indonesia’s IT sector has evolved from a voluntary corporate social responsibility initiative into a strategic business imperative. This shift is largely driven by the implementation of mandatory sustainability reporting requirements, including the disclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, under Indonesia’s sustainable finance regulation issued by the Financial Services Authority (OJK, 2024). As a result, sustainability performance is no longer assessed solely as an ethical commitment, but as a formal component of corporate accountability and risk management.

To ensure consistency and comparability in reporting, corporate emissions are classified under the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol into three distinct scopes. Scope 1 emissions represent direct emissions generated from sources owned or controlled by the company, such as fuel combustion from diesel generators and company-owned vehicles. Scope 2 emissions refer to indirect emissions from purchased electricity, which constitute a significant share of total emissions in the IT and data center sector due to the continuous energy demand of servers, cooling systems, and digital infrastructure.

Beyond operational boundaries, Scope 3 emissions include all other indirect emissions occurring across the value chain, both upstream and downstream. For IT companies, this encompasses emissions from hardware manufacturing, data center construction, vendor and partner operations, employee mobility, business travel, and the downstream use of digital services by clients. Although Scope 3 emissions are not directly controlled by the company, they often account for the largest proportion of total emissions, particularly in B2B-oriented digital service providers.

The growing regulatory emphasis on Scope 3 disclosure signals a fundamental shift in how sustainability is evaluated. Companies are no longer judged solely on internal efficiency, but on their ability to manage environmental impacts across interconnected ecosystems of suppliers, partners, and customers. In this context, compliance with reporting standards increasingly represents only the minimum requirement for legitimacy, rather than a source of strategic differentiation.

Why Action Cannot Wait

Rapidly Growing Environmental Footprint

resource: https://www.esdm.go.id/id/media-center/arsip-berita/kinerja-sektor-esdm-2024

Indonesia’s rapid digitalization has significantly increased the energy demand of data centers and cloud infrastructure. Data center electricity consumption is projected to reach 8-10% of national electricity usage by 2030 equivalent to the total consumption of Greater Jakarta (Kementerian ESDM & APJII, 2024). Without efficiency improvements, the IT sector could become a major contributor to national carbon emissions.

Regulatory and Client Pressure

resource: https://ojk.go.id/id/berita-dan-kegiatan

The revision of POJK No. 51/2017 requires listed and export-oriented companies to disclose Scope 3 emissions, including emissions from IT vendors and digital services, increasing sustainability pressure across the IT supply chain (OJK, 2024).

Talent Expectations

Sustainability has also become a critical factor in employer branding. Approximately 78% of Indonesian Gen-Z professionals prefer to work for companies with credible sustainability commitments, making environmental performance an important determinant in attracting and retaining digital talent (LinkedIn, 2025).

Financial Incentives

Under OJK’s Sustainable Finance Framework Phase II, green projects such as renewable energy development (solar, wind, and biomass), energy-efficient buildings, low-emission transportation systems, sustainable waste and water management, and environmentally responsible forestry and agriculture benefit from financing costs that are 100–200 basis points lower than conventional projects. By offering lower financing costs, this policy reinforces the business case for sustainability by directly linking environmental performance to greater financial efficiency (OJK, 2024).

Indonesian IT Pioneers Leading the Way

Several Indonesian IT and digital infrastructure companies demonstrate that sustainability can coexist with high performance, each by emphasizing distinct strategic advantages:

Telkom Indonesia & NeutraDC highlight energy efficiency leadership through the operation of hyperscale data centers in Batam and Cikarang with exceptionally low PUE levels (1.15–1.18). This performance is achieved by leveraging on-site solar energy integration and PLN green electricity tariffs, positioning them among the most energy-efficient data center operators in Southeast Asia (Telkom Indonesia Sustainability Report, 2024).
DCI Indonesia differentiates itself through carbon neutrality and global certification standards, becoming the first Indonesian Tier-IV data center to operate fully carbon-neutral in 2024. This achievement is reinforced by LEED Gold certification, underscoring DCI’s commitment to environmental responsibility without compromising reliability and uptime (DCI Indonesia, 2024).
Biznet Data Centres emphasize technological innovation in energy optimization, implementing free-air cooling systems combined with AI-based energy management. This approach enables Biznet to target PUE levels below 1.25, reflecting a strong focus on operational efficiency and intelligent infrastructure design (Biznet, 2024).
AWS and Alibaba Cloud Jakarta Region position sustainability as a service level value proposition through carbon-aware computing solutions. By dynamically shifting workloads to periods dominated by renewable energy on the electricity grid, both providers enable clients to reduce carbon emissions at the application level, reinforcing their role as enablers of green digital transformation (AWS, 2024; Alibaba Cloud, 2024).

Sustainability as a Source of High-Margin Growth

Early adopters of sustainable IT strategies are already capturing substantial economic value, including:

ESG platform and carbon accounting contracts worth Rp 50–300 billion from BUMNs and financial institutions (Katadata, 2025).
Preferred bidder status for national strategic projects such as IKN smart-city development (BKPM, 2025).
Premium pricing of 15-30% from EU and US clients seeking low-carbon digital supply chains that comply with international due diligence standards (McKinsey Indonesia, 2025).

These outcomes indicate that sustainability is no longer merely a compliance requirement but a driver of revenue growth, market differentiation, and long-term competitiveness.

Strategic Roadmap for Indonesian IT Companies

To transform sustainability from compliance into competitive advantage, Indonesian IT firms should prioritize:

Green Infrastructure : energy-efficient data centers, renewable energy sourcing, and optimized cloud utilization (Kementerian ESDM & APJII, 2024).
Green Software Engineering : low-energy algorithms, efficient architectures, and carbon-aware system design (Green Software Foundation Indonesia Chapter, 2025).
Transparent Measurement and Reporting : ESG disclosures, Scope 3 emissions accounting, and carbon performance dashboards aligned with OJK and global standards (OJK, 2024).
Organizational Integration : embedding sustainability into corporate strategy, innovation processes, and employer branding to meet talent expectations (LinkedIn, 2025).

Conclusion

In 2025, sustainability in Indonesia’s IT sector has become a decisive competitive differentiator. Companies that proactively integrate green IT practices are better positioned to meet regulatory requirements, attract talent, secure financing, and capture high-value contracts. Sustainability is no longer about compliance alone it represents a strategic pathway to resilient growth and long-term value creation in Indonesia’s digital economy.

#SustainaibilityIndonesia #GreenITIndonesia #ITBerdemocracy #DigitalEconomyID #ESG #Scope3Emissions #KeunggulanKompetitif #TransformasiDigital #RegulasiOJK #KeuanganBerkelanjutan #GreenSoftwareEngineering #GreenInfrastructure #DataCenterID #CloudComputing #EnergiTerbarukan #Digitalisasi #PUE #TelkomIndonesia #DCIIndonesia #GenZTalent #EmployerBranding #InovasiBerkelanjutan #BisnisHijau

References

https://ojk.go.id/id/berita-dan-kegiatan/publikasi/Pages/Roadmap-Keuangan-Berkelanjutan-Tahap-II-(2021-2025).aspx https://www.esdm.go.id/id/media-center/arsip-berita/kinerja-sektor-esdm-2024-lampui-target-penuhi-kebutuhan-domestik-dan-tingkatkan-ketahanan-energi- https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/talent-solutions/emerging-jobs-report/Linkedin_EJR_ID_final.pdf

https://idxcarbon.co.id/news-press-release

https://www.telkom.co.id/sites/sustainability/en_US/page/esg-reports-1153

https://dci-indonesia.com/investor-relation/reports/

https://www.alibabacloud.com/en/solutions/sustainability?_p_lc=1

https://greensoftware.foundation/