Just imagine a scenario where we didn’t have the cloud, and all our current computing power was spread across hundreds of thousands (or millions) of data centers around the world. What would a global PUE improvement chart look like in that case? Probably up and to the right! Without the centralization of assets, there wouldn’t be enough incentive to drive all this efficiency at scale.

Running a more energy-efficient data center operation is important for fiscal reasons as well. Data centers are expensive to build, and are usually financed through debt and equity. Institutional investors are increasingly prioritizing sustainable funds that meet ESG criteria (environmental, social and governance). Blackrock, which manages over $8 trillion dollars in assets, recently dedicated itself to sustainable investing.

“As more and more investors choose to tilt their investments towards sustainability-focused companies, the tectonic shift we are seeing will accelerate further,” said Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock, in a recent investor letter to CEOs. “And because this will have such a dramatic impact on how capital is allocated, every management team and board will need to consider how this will impact their company’s stock.”

Clearly, sustainability initiatives aren’t just about “good corporate citizenship” anymore. These days they are practically mandatory. And that’s a good thing. But guess what? I think it’s safe to say that when Google started concentrating on data center efficiency at the turn of the century, they weren’t thinking about the environment. They were thinking about money.

Again, this is what happens when the manufacturer owns the asset. This phenomenon is nothing new — right now there’s a lightbulb in a fire department in Livermore, California that has been lit since 1901. Why? Because electricity companies used to own the lightbulbs in homes and buildings, not us!

“When products are turned into services, no one has an interest in things with a short life span,” says Ida Auken, a member of the Danish Parliament. “Everything is designed for durability, repairability and recyclability. The materials are flowing more quickly in our economy, and can be transformed to new products pretty easily.”

The same general dynamics behind the shift to the cloud — access over ownership, pay-as-you-go consumption — are happening in every industry. Here’s what the former head of sustainability at IKEA said at a Guardian conference: “If we look on a global basis, in the West we have probably hit peak stuff. We talk about peak oil. I’d say we’ve hit peak red meat, peak sugar, peak stuff … peak home furnishings.”

That’s why IKEA and several other startups are launching new furniture subscription programs. Because when it comes to things like couches, appliances, electronics, and clothing, we are currently living in a non-cloud scenario. We aren’t in a circular economy, where products are designed to be reused and repurposed. We’re still living in the landfill economy.

The good news is that thousands of subscription companies want to change that. A company called Grover lets you subscribe to personal electronics in order to help reduce e-waste. Rent the Runway lets you share and subscribe to clothing in order to minimize clothing waste. Joymode, whose motto is “Do More. Own Less,” offers access to low-utilization items like camping gear and karaoke machines.

Today if a company wants to succeed (and get funding from places like Blackrock), they’re going to need to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to sustainable consumption and responsible repurposing. Peak Stuff (and its partner-in-crime, planned obsolescence!) is coming to an end. That’s why A World Subscribed is a more sustainable world.