10. August 2023
Matthias Wagener
This much in advance: In the 1990s, the term “Green IT” was coined to summarize the ideas emerging at the time for creating environmentally friendly technologies, processes and strategies.
Green IT encompasses a wide range of approaches, such as improving the energy efficiency of data centers, circular economy with the promotion of recycling and reuse of electronic devices, the development of energy-efficient hardware and software, and also raising public awareness of environmentally friendly use of “IT”.
The idea of “GREEN IT” doesn’t seem to have really taken off – and especially with the last point above, awareness, there seems to be a break, because there doesn’t seem to be any real awareness of what impact our daily and still increasing use of, for example, social networks has on sustainability. Perhaps this is also because “IT” simply sounds alien in our everyday lives: like a topic that concerns geeks and nerds, like the depths of technology and engineers in a digital world that has little to do with us in our everyday lives.
So as part of our sustainability initiative VAST GREEN, we started with the term: instead of “Green IT”, we say “Green Data” – because there is considerable leverage in our use of data that we can influence in our daily usage: every phone call, every Netflix session, every half hour of Instagram and Tik Tok can be measured in “data volume” – giving us an idea of the impact of our data usage.
Did you know that the Internet is responsible for about 3.7% of global CO2 emissions?
Well, you’re not alone. Many people don’t realize that surfing the web and using data is so emissions intensive.
And the topic of GREEN DATA (or GREEN IT) has not yet been given much prominence in the literature or in sustainability initiatives. At VAST FORWARD, we, as a digital service provider, also see our responsibility in sharing our perspective and learned insights with our environment and our network – and of course in leading by example in concrete changes of use.
To do this, we take responsibility for our share and focus on the impact that handling data can have in terms of sustainability.
For us, GREEN DATA encompasses all areas that we find in our digital infrastructure. This includes software and tools, of course, but also our communication behavior, from emails to video use in online meetings, the storage of data to the programming of our products and the hosting of cloud services and websites – and personally the aforementioned streaming services and social media.
Looking ahead, we see that digital technologies, also fueled by AI development, could one day help reduce CO2 emissions on a larger scale. However, artificial intelligences also consume massive amounts of energy and resources.
“GREEN DATA” is thus something like a “professional digital equivalent” to our personal and professional sustainability efforts.
How can we, as a small organization, go about incorporating this “digital equivalent” into our professional daily lives? By deleting unneeded data, reviewing and permanently adjusting our daily usage patterns, we can make an important contribution to a more sustainable future!
Over the next few months, we will show you in our GREEN DATA blog post series why you should start a digital “deep clean” now at the latest and how you can save electricity, money and CO2 emissions by the way!
