If, until now, we have chosen to ignore the emissions generated by IT by focusing on its benefits, such as the reduction in the amount of paper used within companies or the ability to work and meet remotely, we must react.
So any company that wants to be environmentally conscious today needs to make sure that its digital uses are more sustainable. And one of the answers is the cloud.
Cloud players already on the move toward responsible digital
While the use of the cloud is indeed based on physical infrastructures such as datacenters, these are becoming increasingly energy efficient. Indeed, servers are becoming more and more efficient and consume less energy. There are many reasons for this, but one in particular stands out: the location of data centers. Indeed, countries like Sweden, with hydroelectricity, or france, with nuclear power, produce much lower carbon energy than most of their European neighbors.
Major providers such as Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure have also all set clear renewable energy targets, mainly through so-called Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). These power purchase agreements dedicated to companies, SMEs and local authorities provide access to green and reliable energy for many years while promoting the energy transition.
However, even if we are indeed moving in the right direction, it is often difficult to compare these promises with the rigorous GHG protocols of audits, and the various reports that appear on carbon emissions. How can we make sense of this?
How can we optimize the cloud?
There are several ways that companies and cloud providers can work together to reduce their emissions and get the most out of the technology. First, companies can work directly with their providers, or even specialized agencies, to conduct an audit and estimate their current emissions. The important thing is to get a complete picture of how much carbon is being generated by the company’s activities.
Second, there are two ways to optimize the use of cloud resources. The first is to go back to basics by changing the code itself. It’s important to keep in mind that while optimizing a few lines of code may seem trivial, the overall effect can be very powerful, especially when we’re talking about hundreds or thousands of websites for some multinationals. The other way is to optimize the way the cloud deployment is done. With certain operational optimizations, such as continuous deployment, it is possible to use fewer resources for the same application.
Finally, the cloud also offers the ability to move data and services anywhere there is a suitable datacenter. So when launching a new project, companies should be able to choose the datacenter located on the network with the lowest carbon intensity. For example, a data center in Sweden that uses renewable energy can emit up to 10 times less CO2 per kWh than one powered by coal-fired electricity in Germany.
Ultimately, the crux of optimizing a company’s digital impact lies in transparency, and especially access to information. However, while cloud providers are beginning to provide some carbon emissions data, these figures are generally based on the global market and do not include location information. The revolution is underway, but much progress remains to be made.