Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles have become a strategic priority for modern organizations. They guide how companies use resources, expand digital access, and ensure accountability in their operations. For IT leaders, ESG has shifted from a reporting requirement to a guiding lens for every infrastructure investment, including storage.
Storage is where your data lives – and it’s often the most overlooked part of your ESG stack. Yet it shapes your environmental footprint, your commitment to digital equity, and your ability to govern data ethically.
At TrueNAS, we believe performance and responsibility should go hand-in-hand. That’s why we’ve built an open storage platform that aligns naturally with sustainability, equity, and transparency – from the silicon to the software.
Here’s how TrueNAS supports a more sustainable, inclusive, and transparent future through open storage.
Environmental Stewardship: Efficiency by Design
TrueNAS promotes hardware efficiency and extended lifespan through open storage. By enabling customers to repurpose existing systems or scale intelligently with hybrid flash and HDD configurations, TrueNAS helps reduce e-waste and lowers the environmental footprint of data storage.
Built-in features like data integrity, compression, and deduplication reduce storage overhead – minimizing power consumption and cooling requirements in data centers. Many customers achieve meaningful sustainability gains without sacrificing performance or scalability.
-
- Longer hardware lifecycle = less e-waste and more sustainable deployments
- Built-in efficiency = lower energy use per terabyte stored
- Open Enterprise Architecture versatility = reduced over-provisioning and hardware obsolescence
Social Impact: Access by Default
Recognized as a Digital Public Good by the DPGA in 2023, TrueNAS empowers a global community of developers, IT professionals, educators, and small businesses by including the Community Edition at no license cost, making enterprise storage accessible to anyone, anywhere.
This commitment to open access reduces barriers for underserved regions, fosters digital equity, and supports learning, experimentation, and self-reliance – at scale.
-
- Community Edition with no license fees = enterprise storage available to anyone, anywhere
- Global accessibility = trusted by education, healthcare, nonprofit, and public sector orgs
- Community-powered innovation = open collaboration and educational impact worldwide
Governance & Transparency: An Auditable Architecture
TrueNAS gives users full control over their data—no hidden costs, no lock-in, and no reliance on opaque SaaS platforms. Unlike proprietary vendors that enforce lock-in or obscure their product roadmaps, TrueNAS operates with transparency and user empowerment.
With an open development model, published security disclosures, and a community-driven roadmap, TrueNAS reinforces ethical governance and builds trust across enterprise and government environments.
-
- Open code and architecture = data sovereignty, accountability, and auditability
- Governance-ready design = supports compliance and secure, transparent operations
- Public roadmap = open development, clear updates, and shared direction
Build Sustainable and Transparent IT Infrastructure
In a world demanding responsible technology, TrueNAS offers a rare trifecta: performance, freedom, and sustainability – proving that enterprise storage doesn’t have to come at the cost of people or the planet.
Today’s IT leaders are under growing pressure to align infrastructure investments with ESG priorities. Sustainability, equity, and transparency are no longer “nice-to-haves” – they’re strategic imperatives.
TrueNAS delivers more than just powerful, flexible storage. It provides an open foundation for ethical, efficient IT – without compromising performance, security, or control.
If you’re:
-
- Reducing your data center footprint
- Expanding access to underserved teams
- Minimizing lock-in and vendor dependency
TrueNAS gives you a platform that’s as principled as it is practical.
We’re proud to help thousands of organizations do more with less – responsibly.
About TrueNAS
TrueNAS is the world’s most trusted storage platform, relied on by millions of users and a majority of Fortune 500™ companies.
Powered by the acclaimed OpenZFS file system, TrueNAS delivers scalable, unified storage with unmatched reliability and performance.
TrueNAS Enterprise combines data center grade hardware and professional support to meet the demands of enterprise users, providing cost-effective, modern data storage solutions.
Learn more at www.truenas.com.