Thomas Blood: Leading the AWS Charge for Sustainable Cloud

While the growth of cloud computing has enabled incredible technological advances, it has also raised important questions around sustainability and environmental impact. As the world's leading cloud provider, AWS has a pivotal role to play in driving a more sustainable future for the technology sector.

Rather than being viewed merely as consumers of energy and natural resources, companies like AWS are positioning themselves at the forefront of sustainable computing initiatives. As the organisation’s Commercial Sector Sustainability Leader for EMEA, Thomas Blood explains, technology giants like AWS hold a key role in tackling sustainability challenges. According to research, its infrastructure is up to five times more energy efficient than typical European data centres and, in 2022, 90% of the electricity consumed by Amazon was attributable to renewable energy sources.

“Sustainability is a global challenge and we have to solve it at scale,” Blood said in a recent interview with Sustainability Magazine. “AWS is global and we're trying to solve global challenges.”

AWS: Helping customers accelerate their sustainability goals

A seasoned technology leader, Blood and his team are at the forefront of helping customers accelerate their sustainability goals and ambitions through the power of cloud technology.

Blood's journey began in the 1980s when he pursued studies in climate and environmental science, as well as economic development. Driven by a desire to connect human elements with environmental science, he embarked on a career path that would eventually lead him to the intersection of two of the most important topics of our time: technology and sustainability.

Over the next three decades, Blood gained invaluable experience working across various sectors, including software, data centres, startups and the public sector. His diverse background equipped him with a unique perspective and a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities in bridging technology and environmental stewardship.

Joining AWS as an enterprise strategist was a pivotal moment in Blood's career, allowing him to combine his expertise in technology with his personal passion for sustainability. As the importance of sustainability became a critical business focus in recent years, Blood witnessed firsthand the evolution of this topic from a niche concern to a top priority for CEOs and boardrooms around the world.

"It became a topic that the CEOs cared about and all of a sudden, it became a top 10 issue. It has become a boardroom conversation to say, 'what's our responsibility? How can we help? What can we do differently?' And that is just such a game-changer," Blood reflects.

At AWS, Blood recognises the immense potential of cloud technology to drive sustainability initiatives at a global scale. Through AWS's cloud services, Blood and his team are empowering businesses worldwide to accelerate their sustainability progress by leveraging the power of technology to remove limitations and barriers to progress.

“Technology and sustainability were among the top 10 priorities of CEOs in 2023, according to Gartner,” he said in an AWS blog. “Business leaders say they view both as important drivers of growth and innovation, and increasingly they’re using technology to achieve their sustainability goals.

“If companies start out on the right trajectory with their cloud deployment plan, they can accelerate their sustainability improvements and progressively achieve four gains: More sustainable IT delivery, more sustainable business operations, creation and delivery of more sustainable business models, services and products, and thorough organisational transformation, with sustainability at the core of their operation.”

Blood's dedication to sharing knowledge and inspiring others is exemplified in his co-authored book, Reaching Cloud Velocity, written alongside Jonathan Allen. Drawing from the collective experiences of AWS and hundreds of customers they have worked with globally, the book provides a comprehensive guide for leaders seeking to grow their cloud transformation and sustainability initiatives.

With some estimates that sustainability itself could be a US$12tn business in future, Blood is genuinely excited about the future, while acknowledging the need for sustainability when it comes to meeting the needs of customers.

“Customers are very clearly telling us – especially in Europe, but also increasingly in Asia and North America – that they care about the environment and about sustainability,” he says. “So we want to do what's good for our customers. We will do what we can to meet that need and meet that demand.”

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