According to the revised Lean ICT Report the Digital energy consumption has increased by 6.5% yearly since 2015. "Digital" includes Internet, all our digital devices and the infrastructures needed to support them.
Converted in GHG emissions, given the worldwide electricity mix, this represents around 3.5% of global GHG Emissions. It is already at the level of the airline industry. And the trend is worrying with a projection to double by 2025.
"Digital footprint" comprises several energy consuming focuses:
- Production of devices
- Usage of devices (Electricity consumption for batteries and data consumption relying on electricity consumption too)
- Destruction of obsolete devices
All of them are at the core of green ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) thoughts to decrease our carbon footprint.
Energy Sobriety is the most effective way to curb energy consumption in general. And luckily, it can be applied to digital usage: prevent depletion of raw material, hazardous e-waste, rebound effects and to make our existing equipments last longer...
Restraining our use of digital devices and technology whenever possible is key, yet very hard given our current world.
Here are some easy quick-wins to adopt low-carbon practices in your digital daily life:
603 kg CO2e
footprint of your emails received per year, equivalent to around half of the entire yearly average individual carbon footprint in India.
(Carbon literacy)
1250 kg CO2e
is a mobile phone yearly GHG emissions based on a 1 hour per day usage.
(theguardian.com)
Want to know more about our devices carbon footprint? Here are some interesting articles:
- the face
- science direct
- eco age
- eco bahn
Some MOOCs and reports:
- MOOC: MOOC for a sustainable IT by the ISIT Academy
- Documentary: Greening the Net by CNA Insider
- Report: Lean ICT Report by The Shift Project
This is a DIY - Do It Yourself Solution. If you want, you may ask a consultant to help you implement it.
Implement good printing practices is possible !
Here are some easy quick-wins to curb your resources consumption during printing:
- Reduce Paper usage by:
- Reduce Ink usage by:
- IT teams can deploy/update relevant laptops masters. By enforcing such masters, employees cannot change some printing settings. This practice can save a lot of resources in the end because it "automatically" enforces a sober mode for printing: two-side mode, Black & White mode, blank pages feature removed ...
- Deploy sign up/check-in processes to prevent people from printing at anytime for anything. If we have to walk to the printer to start the printing job, if we have a quota on printing jobs... we will think twice before printing it!
- Display visible, permanent guidelines nearby printers & Train your staff.
- Deploy specific printing softwares to monitor printing consumption. We recommend this one from Paper Cut.
As this section focuses on IT practices, please refer to this other section for paper & printing general solutions.
50 times more
energy is consumed to produce a single sheet of paper than to print a page.(Eurovaprint)
This is a DIY - Do It Yourself Solution. If you want, you may ask a consultant to help you implement it.
Changing your device before the end of its lifespan for a better energy saving one is NOT a solution, as most of its environmental impact arises during production.
A study on timely replacement of notebooks showed that a realistic energy efficiency improvement of 10% between two notebook generations meant the amortisation periods would be between 33 and 88 years!
In a word, keep your devices as long as possible and adopt low-energy practices while using them.
Here are some of the low-energy best practices you can adopt in your daily life:
If you wish to know more about mobile phone energy consumption, you can have a look at this interesting (yet long) article.
87% less
energy is consumed by your computer on sleep mode.
(Ademe - Sept 2019)
ElectronicsCrazy is an online electronics marketplace in Singapore.
They deal in ten most popular categories including mobile phones, computers and laptops, cameras, network switches, smart power sockets...
They have a wide range of certified refurbished computers and other refurbished items.
Company providing End-to-End sustainability and Energy Efficiency intelligence services. It contains three main components:
Whenever possible, use existing services, apps, solutions that advocate a sustainable approach. In terms of Search Engine, Ecosia or Gexsi could be worth considering for going an "extra" mile.
In terms of carbon footprint, Google uses a mixture of renewable energy and carbon offsetting to be carbon neutral. They have also announced to have eliminated their total carbon legacy and their next global sustainability goal is to operate entirely on 24/7 carbon-free electricity at all their data centres by 2030. Sembcorp is providing a whole energy solution with a focus on locally-sourced renewable power to support Google’s operations in Singapore. The deal includes energy generated from close to 500 public housing flats with rooftop solar installations.
Microsoft, which owns the Bing search engine, has promised to become carbon negative by 2030, and efforts are underway to investigate whether this footprint is now higher or lower.
However, those carbon neutrality goals do not take into account the transmission of data from the datacentres to our devices and therefore we still need to pursue frugality in using our digital devices as shown in above solution "Reduce Digital Footprint".
108 millions trees
number of trees planted by Ecosia, a search engine that plants a tree every 45 searches.(ecosia.org)
Gexsi is a purpose-driven search engine and a certified B Corporation. Revenues generated by search requests are used to support worldwide projects and social innovators dedicated to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
As an example, they support projects such as reforestation, infrastructures to fight poverty or plastic removal from the oceans.
They are using BING search partnership services.
For servers and datacentres, as energy consumption is their main carbon footprint, it is important to continuously work on decreasing their energy consumption.
Before any best practices, let us focus briefly on datacentres to understand what is at stake.
First, it is good to keep in mind that datacentres/servers are not bad guys here! Their efficiency has been improved ridiculously over the last decades. According to GreenIT.fr, datacentres' activities increased by 550% over the last decade, for a slight 6% increase of electricity consumption.
Datacentres are listed into Tiers - depending on the average unavailability of service (per year). The more the service is ensured, the higher Tier it is (and the energy consumption too!).
Therefore, before anything, it is important to estimate the importance of a service to deploy it on a server/datacentre. Non critical services are not necessary on a Tier 4 datacentre for example.
Last - but not least: data flows are important to understand to lower their impact. Isit Academy estimates that:
- 15% of data received/sent by datacentres are processed from end-users
- 15% of data received/sent by datacentres are processed from external datacentres
- Remaining 70% (!) data are internal flows (save, security, storage...).
This gives perspective to know where improvements should be made in priority. Especially, security processes are considered being the most energy consuming services in a datacentre.
Finally, the electricity consumed by a datacentre also includes all interfaces, screens, people.... Some improvements have to be enforced here also, not only in the datacentre processes themselves.
Some important Best Practices to implement:
14%
is the projected percentage of ICT GHG emissions by 2040 on the worldwide 2016-level based GHGE.
(sciencedirect)
7450 kWh per year
is the estimated electricity consumption of a standard server. Based on the US Energy Information administration, this represents a total cost of 730 USD per year.
(ZDNet)
For servers and datacentres:
- International Energy Agency (IEA) report
On the big picture regarding ICT and datacentres energy consumption:
- nature.com paper
On how to build sustainable datacentres:
- datacenterdynamics.com papers
- datacenterdynamics.com white paper
More ideas to reduce energy consumption:
- age of awareness
More on datacentres in Singapore and ASEAN:
- white paper on the future of datacentres in the face of climate change
With more than 15 years expertise, EcoXplore provides integrated automation, smart meters and IoT products in Singapore.
Their solutions range from Datacentres Infrastructure Management (DCIM) and Energy Management System (EMS) to Building Management System (BMS) and Lighting Control Management System.
Engie is a global energy company, whose SEA entity works towards low-carbon solutions. They focus on reducing consumption, energy-efficiency, renewables... with the help of smart solutions such as IoT.
Engie SEA intervenes all along the value chain, from strategy and engineering, to operations management and outcome assurance.
ENGIE bring knowledge and solutions in Design, Build, Management and Operation of mission-critical data centres that deliver significant gains in energy efficiency, reduction in cost and carbon emissions.
Specifically, they can help save energy and time over large infrastructures through agile flexible stacks and IoT-based solutions. They can also deliver services for energy usage optimisation.
Company providing End-to-End sustainability and Energy Efficiency intelligence services. It contains three main components:
Green Koncepts develops smart solutions to save energy and time for buildings, cities, datacentres, offices...
Their DCIM solution (Datacentre Infrastructure Management) provides energy-use data and analysis tools to effectively monitor Datacentres' PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness).
Specifically, they can act over large infrastructures through agile flexible stacks and IoT-based solutions.
Schneider Electric provides energy and automation digital solutions & services, with a focus on efficiency and sustainability, for buildings, datacentres, industries and infrastructures in all kind of sectors (IT, healthcare, finance, retail etc.)
They developed EcoStruxure, an IoT-enabled platform for better control, analysis, services and connectivity.
Click here to contact their sales team.
Datacentres' carbon footprint is relatively high due to their energy consumption. After reducing datacentres' energy consumption (see solution above and in green hardware and e-waste), the second step is to turn to greener energy sources and adapt your organization accordingly.
Indeed, solar energy is unfortunately not a 24x7 hours source, as a result, you may also depend on purchasing energy credits if you want to become carbon neutral.
At least, you may consider shifting recurrent computing tasks to times when solar energy sources are available. See more in the International Energy Agency (IEA) report.
Another way to save energy for datacentres may lie within microgrids to deploy automated distributed systems to save and optimize all energy consumption. More information here.
200 TWh per year
is the yearly electricity consumption rough estimate of worldwide datacentres. It is more than the electricity consumption of countries like Argentina or Ukraine.
(energy council)
100 billion liters
of water is the estimated needed volume to cooldown all datacentres based in the US.
(Nature)
Company providing End-to-End sustainability and Energy Efficiency intelligence services. It contains three main components:
South Pole has been at the forefront of decarbonization since 2006, developing and implementing comprehensive strategies that turn climate action into long-term business opportunities for Fortune 500 companies, governments and organizations around the world.
South Pole is more than a consultancy, its team of 1,200+ experts have developed projects, as well as designed innovative tools across finance, climate neutral APIs, and carbon offset solutions to help clients reach their carbon mitigation and Net Zero goals.
To date South Pole has worked with over 1,000 clients, and will soon have developed 800 offset projects across 30 offices globally.
Our solutions have created tens of thousands of jobs in developing countries, hundreds of millions of dollars for business, improved brand value and better living and working conditions for countless people in vulnerable communities around the world.
Set up a Green or Responsible IT team, in charge of implementing the company's sustainable policy / CSR strategy and its sustainable procurement in the IT department.
They should develop a specific sustainable plan for the IT department in collaboration with your Sustainability Manager or your Company Green Team, establish and track KPIs, measure progress and set new targets every year. To help you along the way to build your green community, refer to our article to engage people on a sustainable journey.
It is important that the Green IT Team educate all the IT users on the digital world carbon footprint and impact, and talk with them about digital sobriety. If you are not aware of the problems, you cannot resolve them ! Share your your IT department's sustainability strategy, explaining the main targets, timeline and KPIs.
They should also regularly train all users on Green Best Practices (see above solutions) including Paper & Printing Best Practices if need be (see here) and on how to increase lifespan of IT equipments (and why).
Once they understand the problem, your IT users will eventually question their needs and habits (do I really need a second or third screen? do I really need to built a completely new website / software ?...). They will be a great help when conducting digital footprint audits, action plans implementation and monitoring.
Sustainable IT collage workshops can be perfect to kick-off sustainable actions! Liase with us for more information.
Here is a very useful MOOC on Sustainable IT
How to organise a digital cleanup day
Bricks, Golds or Greens? Understand who you are talking to through a video or download a short pdf and adapt your messages accordingly.
This is a DIY - Do It Yourself Solution. If you want, you may ask a consultant to help you implement it.
It is necessary to perform audits and technology overviews to measure and thus reduce your IT carbon footprint.
Start simply with online calculator tools and then take a step further by implementing full hardware and software audits.
As there is not yet a comprehensive way to calculate your total footprint, first identify the environmental indicators (energy, GHG, tension over fresh water, resource depletion … ). Then, define the scope. You may want to measure:
Set also the timeline and frequency of your measurements.
Include equipment ratio per employee for asset / hardware audits and lifecycle assessments (LCA).
After doing so, you can use some of the following nice online tools:
For software engineering, you may ask the help of a third-party company to assess your software carbon footprint in terms of design (front-end) and architecture / coding (back-end). Implement necessary actions to reduce its carbon footprint and optimize the solutions you have before launching costly projects. Please also refer to our dedicated page on design and coding best practices.
At least, always audit before disassembling hardware or software. It will help you understand which ones can be re-used, re-conditioned and what has to be properly recycled.
- Here is a simple online digital calculator to start with
- Websitecarbon for a fast overview of your website digital footprint
- Read about ISO 14044 & lifecycle assessment
Company providing End-to-End sustainability and Energy Efficiency intelligence services. It contains three main components:
We are passionate about people, the environment, and technological progress. We anticipate technological developments and facilitate change – defining standards and going beyond regulatory compliance. Staying true to our founding principle, we add value by creating a safer and more sustainable future.
Carbon emission verification ISO 14064, LCA ISO14067, Green Compass Trainer, other sustainability courses from TUV SUD Academy, Energy audits.
The « green journey » may feel overwhelming sometimes, but you are not alone.
Our Buddies have tried, succeeded, failed to implement change in their companies. They share their experience so you can learn, take shortcuts, get inspired and ask questions.
Everybody can become a Buddy and give back to the community; if you are keen, get in touch with us.
I am Thibaut, French bald since 26 & bold since forever! Right now, I am a 1st time entrepreneur in the making.
I come from an IT & software agency background so deeply into B2B and old-fashioned processes. I came to realize that sustainability cannot be only about consumers and half-measures. I also realized IT Sustainability was much underrated and not understood by most companies. It came quite as a surprise for me since I always considered IT Sustainability as one of the best ways to merge both ROI & Sustainability to make the latter sound acceptable, actionable, and realistic. Having seen that, I wanted to make a change in my own way.
My dedication came from the desire to be able to look my future kids in the eye and tell them that I tried to make the world a better place.
I am also drawn to uncommon & less popular causes, which is why e-waste caught my attention. While it’s not as “buzzy” as plastic waste or consumer recycling, it has the potential to have a greater impact, especially in Asia.
Graduated in IT and marketing, Nicolas started his career at SAUTER, a Swiss BMS Supplier, in the HQ in 2008 and has been a product manager for several years. After the successful launch of the first BMS Cloud in Europe, he became business developer in the APAC region in 2015. He relocated to Shanghai for 20 months to be closer to the markets, before moving to Singapore in 2018 where he created and directed the SAUTER APAC Competence Centre until June 2022. Since then, he has taken on the role of CEO at beez-fm, a green tech startup he founded in December 2019.
I have been working in Asia for the past 12 years (Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore since 2014) within the digital and technology space.
I have founded and run several companies in different sectors such as IT Consulting, Education, and the F&B business.
I am passionate about how to use technology as a force for good.
With a background in sustainability consulting and audit, Ivona supports businesses in their sustainability journey by building an impactful strategy, embedding sustainable practices across operations, and reporting performance to stakeholders.
She is the founder of Sustainao, a Singapore-based company specialized in sustainability consulting. Previously, Ivona worked as a sustainability auditor at KPMG France. She holds an MBA in CSR & Sustainability and a Master’s degree in Environmental Management.
In 2003, I joined International SOS, world leader of medical and security assistance services and relocated to Singapore in 2008 where I have spent my life since. I held different regional leadership roles and I was a founding member of the Sustainability Committee and initially led the S (Social) part. I was also leading the Environment pillar, with a special focus on the Ecovadis certification.
I enrolled at SMU back in Sept 2020 and graduated from the Sustainability and Sustainable Business executive masterclass in Dec 2020. In July 2021, I joined a local singaporean startup H3Dynamics with the ambition to decarbonize the aviation industry! And since May 2023, I am now the managing director AsiaPacific for Ecocert, world leader in certification for organic products. I am also the Singapore Ambassador (volunteer) for Ecomatcher to help brands fight climate change, one tree at a time.
Finally, I am a French Trade Advisor and part of the Sustainability Committee to strengthen bridges between France and Singapore on this crucial agenda.
Duncan, originally from the UK, has been living & working in Asia for the last 16 years. He runs a creative interior design & project management company delivering projects across the Asia Pacific Region; specialised in retail, F&B and commercial sectors. Duncan is passionate about creating interiors that excite and engage Clients and Customers alike, all through the lens of sustainability.
Most of my professional career was in Sales and Marketing for emissions-intensive sectors (automotive, telecom, oil and gas industries) to say the least…. But I always knew I had to look for a greater purpose. Covid19 slowed down my professional activities and helped me to follow my passion. I decided to open a new chapter and follow a new career path, but to do so, I had to study sustainability.
I particularly like innovation and tech, so I wish to pursue my career with a tech for good angle.
Carolin is a passionate and driven entrepreneur and sustainability advocate. She is involved in many projects and initiatives that contribute to reducing our environmental impact.
In 2020, Carolin founded the social enterprise susGain.
susGain is a rewards-based engagement app that focuses on driving behavioural change within communities (corporates, schools, NGOs etc.) whilst measuring ESG reportable data on the impact created. By better connecting the environmentally and socially conscious stakeholders, susGain hopes to accelerate the change towards more sustainable communities.
Prior to susGain, Carolin worked as Account & Project Manager in an HR consulting and change management firm, where she was responsible for business development and end-to-end project management of training and consulting projects across APAC.
In July 2021, Carolin won the Finder's Expatpreneur Sustainability Award. susGain has also been recognized by Global Initiatives at the Sustainable Business Awards Singapore 2020/21.