Digital sobriety : a challenge for company’s digitalization
What does digital sobriety mean ? 🤔
It’s a learned term that we consider when we are a digital or digitized company and realize that we have our share of eco-responsibility.
It’s a term coined by Frederic Bordage, engineer and founder of GreenIT and the Shift Project, a think tank whose data is essential to reducing our carbon footprint. The objective of this concept is not simply to have small daily gestures that reduce our impact. We are here in a real global approach by modifying the uses that we have, namely the mass purchase, the modes of consumption much too harmful towards screens or digital devices. This concept aims to reduce all these compulsive behaviors that we can have and to become aware of our impact on the deterioration of the environment.
Digital transformation and digital sobriety : friend or foe?
We often think that because we are a digital or dematerialized company, we are directly involved in the ecological and energy transition. This is absolutely not true if we keep the same operating modes.
In reality, digitalization and digital sobriety are two terms that illustrate the evolution of techniques, technologies and our society. We have on one side the digital expansion and on the other the ecological issue. Two key issues for the economy of tomorrow.
When we talk about digital sobriety, we are mainly talking about carbon sobriety. Indeed, according to the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME), digital technology accounts for about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In view of the extremely rapid changes in consumption patterns in recent years, particularly due to the rise of streaming, social networks and the crisis of the covid 19, digital technology is taking and will take more and more place in our professional and personal uses, which means that its environmental impact will worsen. This footprint will double by 2025.
The challenge today is therefore to know how companies and individuals can counterbalance their emissions?
How to implement digitial sobriety companies ?
First of all, the government is trying to push companies to reduce their environmental footprint, especially on the digital side. It is in this sense that on November 15, 2021, the President of the Republic decreed the law n°2021–1485 aiming at reducing the companies digital environmental footprint in France.
This law not only shows the way to today’s digital actors (consumers or professionals) for a more responsible operation and economy but also to guarantee the development of a more sober, responsible and ecologically virtuous digital.
Secondly, it is important to analyze where the majority of the digital carbon footprint comes from. About 80% of this footprint comes from the production and marketing of equipment. So it is not the use of digital tools but their manufacture that has the greatest impact on our planet. The challenge here is to manufacture better and to think about recycling, which in turn affects the way we consume. The less we renew our digital devices, the more we participate in an ecologically virtuous ecosystem.
It is therefore also necessary to make consumers and professionals aware of a more responsible use, whether on a collective or individual level, in order to change behavior.
How can we do this?
First of all, reduce the use of network equipment outside working hours (mailboxes, chat channels, drives, etc.), try to extend the life of equipment by promoting repairs, recycling and reconditioning, and finally consider new managerial techniques for companies that integrate telework into their ecosystem.
In order to start on the same basis and to make sure that all the employees integrate the new ways of working, it is important to establish an IT charter at the beginning of the transition. The objective is to invite employees to rethink the way they use email, sometimes excessively, and the storage of a multitude of files, which is far too large, and to recommend a parameterized backup instead.
Companies need to look at this transition as a whole and in a way that is feasible. Thinking too big too fast is not relevant for either the company or the employees.
It is also a great way to foster collective awareness and thus get employees to participate in the company’s evolution on a more environmentally responsible path.
Keep in mind…
The 3 axes around which companies should focus to make a good green transition and reduce their digital carbon footprint are:
- Think about 5G which will become 90% more efficient than 4G
- Spare the life of digital equipment by different ways : recycling, second hand with refurbishing and repair
- The use of a cloud (drive) is not necessarily the best solution: despite the data centers progress on the optimization of energy consumption, it is necessary to pool network infrastructures which remains a challenge for cloud providers.
About this article
This article has been written by a student on the Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Masters in Digital Strategy Management. As part of a content creation assignment, students are given the task of writing articles based on their digital interests and disseminate the articles online. Articles are marked but we make minimal changes to the content. Thanks for reading! James Barisic, Programme Director, MS DSM.
