{"id":905305,"date":"2026-05-12T08:19:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T13:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/wd-sees-sustainability-as-key-business-driver-in-an-ai-economy\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T08:19:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T13:19:22","slug":"wd-sees-sustainability-as-key-business-driver-in-an-ai-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/wd-sees-sustainability-as-key-business-driver-in-an-ai-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"WD sees sustainability as key business driver in an \u2018AI economy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Hard drive company WD promoted long-term operations and sustainability executive Jackie Jung to become its first chief sustainability officer in February, as it steps up sales to companies building AI data centers.<\/p>\n

Her vision: Turn sustainability into a \u201cbrand\u201d for WD, a strategy that reduces risk for the $6 billion company (formerly known as Western Digital) while creating new revenue as corporations invest in artificial intelligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWD\u2019s sustainability program started as a compliance-focused program and now is becoming a competitive advantage for the company,\u201d said Jung, an engineer who joined WD via an acquisition in 2007. \u201cSustainability actually is a key driver for us to deliver solutions to the AI economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jung most recently was vice president of global operations strategy, corporate sustainability and transformation. She retains her operations title, underscoring sustainability\u2019s role in both resource efficiency and revenue generation. Her influence is extensive: Nearly 90 percent of WD\u2019s 40,000 employees are in operations.<\/p>\n

WD is a leading supplier of high-capacity data storage technology that drives AI applications. Since 2020, the company has cut absolute emissions from its operations and electricity use by 55 percent. WD\u2019s ability to reduce the energy consumed by its drives and mine fewer materials to make them is critical for future reductions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One example is a program WD created last year for Microsoft<\/a> that recovers and redeploys rare earths from obsolete data center hard drives. The initiative boosts WD\u2019s to use recycled content for 43 percent of the materials in its products, decreases its reliance on increasingly scarce elements and helps Microsoft recover value from its aging technology as its data center footprint grows.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis initiative manages risks, reduces costs and enables a customer; that\u2019s business value,\u201d Jung said.<\/p>\n

Governance structure<\/h2>\n

Jung reports to the WD\u2019s executive vice president and chief of global operations, but she presents to the company\u2019s board on a quarterly basis.<\/p>\n

Board-level metrics related to sustainability are primarily the concern of the company\u2019s governance committee, which also oversees human rights and ethics issues; and the audit committee, which is responsible for public disclosures.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jung\u2019s sustainability council includes cross-functional leaders representing supply chain, quality controls, human resources, sales and marketing, research and development, legal, strategy and ethics and compliance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWD is a very execution-focused company,\u201dshe said, \u201cso if we have a strategy, then the council will translate that into [key performance indicators] that measure progress.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The \u2018AI economy\u2019<\/h2>\n

WD is keying into corporate interest in best practices for more sustainable AI<\/a> as it leverages sustainability-related accomplishments in marketing and sales pitches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, the company has reduced the emissions intensity of its hard drives by 31 percent on a per-petabyte basis since 2020. More than 36 percent of the materials in its products are recycled. Five of its sites run on 100 percent carbon-free energy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

WD offers workforce training on AI with the aim of helping functions across the company become more efficient; it wants its human workforce to become \u201cAI supervisors\u201d who can use their unique domain expertise to continue improving the results that AI can bring and manage for maximum impact..<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are equipping people with AI knowledge, No. 1 \u2014 [that is,] training them \u2014\u00a0and No. 2, helping them navigate to new roles,\u201d Jung said. That\u2019s important for attracting new employees and crucial for preserving knowledge and the \u201cwealth of information\u201d represented by its workforce.<\/p>\n

WD uses AI within its facilities, aiming to improve energy efficiency and reduce water consumption.<\/p>\n

For example, one application monitors chiller performance and automates their operation based on ambient conditions. It also uses AI to increase its use of recycled water, by keeping tabs on filters and predicting quality \u2014 almost 90 percent of the water in some systems is recycled, compared with the typical rate of 70 percent, Jung said.<\/p>\n

WD\u2019s sustainability team is also using AI to gather information about best practices used by other companies that might be beneficial for its own operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greatest thing about sustainability is that it\u2019s relevant to the entire world,\u201d Jung said, \u201cand you can get tremendous insight in learning from others.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Heather
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Heather Clancy<\/h3>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Heather Clancy’s articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Heather Clancy
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hard drive company WD promoted long-term operations and sustainability executive Jackie Jung to become its first chief sustainability officer in February, as it steps up sales to companies building AI data centers. Her vision: Turn sustainability into a \u201cbrand\u201d for WD, a strategy that reduces risk for the $6 billion company (formerly known as Western<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":905306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[378,2539],"tags":[8652,16566],"class_list":{"0":"post-905305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"category-sustainability","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-sustainability"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}