The Importance of Optimizing Your Digital Carbon Footprint
These figures are now widely circulated and discussed: the digital realm is responsible for 10% of global electricity consumption and 4% of greenhouse gas emissions. In a context of strong growth in usage, devices, and equipment, it is clear that this trend will only intensify in the years to come.
Although awareness of the environmental impact of digital technology is slowly spreading within the industry, it is evident that concrete actions are still limited. However, it is time for businesses to take action. In this regard, conducting a carbon assessment of digital applications (web and apps) is an essential component of any “digital sobriety” initiative.
Here are seven compelling reasons to assess the carbon footprint of your digital services.
#1 — Measure for Awareness
Many companies have undertaken carbon assessments, but these assessments typically only consider the hardware and data centers for the IT part. However, according to a green IT study published in January, the energy consumed by servers accounts for less than a quarter of the electrical consumption generated by digital services. Telecom networks and especially terminals (smartphones, tablets, PCs) generate the vast majority of electrical consumption and, indirectly, greenhouse gas emissions. To account for the real environmental impact of your services, you must assess the energy impacts throughout the chain: users, networks, company servers, and IT partners. This effectively means calculating the carbon footprint of digital services. For major digital players with a substantial audience, the carbon footprint of their services likely makes up more than half of their total carbon footprint. Therefore, it cannot be ignored if you are sincerely pursuing measurement, reduction, and carbon footprint offset.
#2 — Measure to Act
The carbon assessment aims to quantify the company’s efforts over time to minimize its carbon footprint.
Applied to digital services, measurement serves a dual purpose:
- quantifying the improvement in the carbon impact of a typical session over time through eco-design
- measuring the carbon footprint resulting from two opposing trends — the growth in usage and, consequently, a “natural” increase in the carbon footprint versus the unit decrease in the environmental impact of a session through eco-design.
#3 —Anticipate Future Regulations
Carbon assessment is mandatory for companies with more than 500 employees. Although the digital part may not necessarily include the part used by the general public, it is likely that this aspect will need to be considered in the coming years.
It is also possible, under the influence of certain stakeholders, that “green IT” labels will be made public, even becoming a criterion of choice for consumers.
Therefore, it is essential to anticipate that legislators and/or consumers will demand a green label for digital services.
The earlier the eco-design process is initiated within the company, the better prepared it will be for this inevitable shift in the market.
#4 — Enhance Service Performance
A carbon footprint reduction effort in digital services will result in the optimization of various technical parameters, including:
- data volume exchanged between the terminal and the server
- types and the number of client/server requests
- graphical complexity of the screen/page.
By reducing consumption in these areas, you automatically improve display and navigation performance, thereby increasing user satisfaction.
#5 — Reduce Technical Debt and Costs
Eco-design will lead to lighter applications, less burdened by poorly managed third-party libraries and SDKs, and less resource-intensive, often based on more modern and efficient technologies.
This will lower the technical debt of the application and, with it, maintenance and evolution costs.
Additionally, by reducing the number of requests and data exchanged, you optimize network bandwidth costs and server costs.
#6 — Reevaluate Work Methods
Adopting an eco-design approach introduces a new dimension into the project parameter. In addition to the User-Business-Technology triad that guides project decisions, you add an environmental dimension that may run counter to the business interests of the company or even alter the user experience.
Striking the right balance between these criteria will require a review of many design, design, and development processes and create a new source of creativity, a reimagined digital realm. This is an opportunity to challenge internal practices and working methods, both within the company and with partners.
#7 — Give Meaning to Employees
Many employees, not just the younger generation, want to reconcile their professional lives with their civic engagement. By adopting an eco-responsible approach, companies will meet the aspirations of employees concerned about climate change who want to take concrete action every day. Eco-design allows them to align their work with their values, indirectly leading to better performance, greater loyalty to the company, and increased attractiveness to potential candidates.
Conclusion
The digital carbon assessment is an essential tool for all companies with significant usage. To be effective, this assessment should be straightforward, reproducible over time, and overseen by company management. There are various ways, more or less complex, to establish and optimize this assessment. inside|app has developed a simple and pragmatic approach, so feel free to contact us to learn more!
