Some thoughts about…

Digital Sustainability

We have a duty to act now – collectively, collaboratively, with urgency and at pace to ensure that future generations can live on this planet.

Steve Frampton – Climate Commissioner for UK Higher and Further Education

The Internet is the world’s largest coal-powered machine. Current estimates of the Internet’s aggregated carbon emissions are in the order of 1.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) emissions a year in 2020, up from 2010 estimates of approximately 300 million tonnes.

If the Internet were a nation, this level of emissions would place it as the fifth largest CO₂e emitter, behind China, USA, India, and Russia.

DEFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOREST by Joana Moll is a net based piece that shows the amount of trees needed to absorb the amount of CO₂ generated by the global visits to google.com every second.

Education Context

Organisations are discovering that the greatest contributors to their carbon footprints are the services and products they buy. Indeed, a vast majority (approximately 80%) of IT’s carbon footprint can be attributed to the manufacturing and distribution of the equipment itself. The rest comes from operational usage.

How we source, procure and dispose of our technology assets is the first area to address, an important part of this being how to use equipment for longer.

EXPLORING DIGITAL CARBON FOOTPRINTS The hidden environmental cost of the digital revolution and the steps universities and colleges can take to address it.

The Jisc report focuses on highlighting the source and impact of digital carbon footprints for:

• Procurement

• On-premises IT

• Cloud technologies

• Remote working

GREEN WEB FOUNDATION Check if a website or service runs on green energy — and help make the Internet fossil-free.

lsbu.ac.uk

mmm.page

WEBSITE CARBON CALCULATOR This web page achieves a carbon rating of B.

WARRIORS OF THE NET (1999)

Quick Wins to Reduce Your Digital Carbon Footprint

Here are some tips to help you reduce your digital carbon footprint and contribute to greening the curriculum:

1. Remove unnecessary images from email footers and unsubscribe from unused newsletters. Instead of sending attachments, share links in your emails.

2. Get into the habit of turning off your electronic devices instead of leaving them on standby mode.

3. Take an active role in cleaning up duplicate, backup or old files from online repositories and your mailbox. Having 100 gigabytes of data stored in the cloud could contribute to approximately 0.18 to 0.2 tonnes of CO₂e annually.

4. Encourage using lightweight media with reduced file sizes and formats, such as animated GIFs, vector graphics, web optimisation, low frame rate films, and compression, when developing student projects.

5. Choose websites and services that are green-hosted and meeting platforms with the least environmental impact, reduce video quality, or choose audio calls over video.

REDUCED DATA = REDUCED ENERGY = REDUCED EMISSIONS = REDUCED COSTS

What are the environmental implications of AI technologies?

In its latest environmental report, Microsoft disclosed that its global water consumption spiked 34% from 2021 to 2022 (to nearly 7.7 billion liters, or more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools), a sharp increase compared to previous years that outside researchers tie to its AI research.

ChatGPT gulps up 500 milliliters of water (close to what’s in a 500ml water bottle) every time you ask it a series of between 5 to 50 prompts or questions. The range varies depending on where its servers are located and the season. The estimate includes indirect water usage that the companies don’t measure —such as to cool power plants that supply the data centers with electricity. [Source]

ChatGPT 3.5 generated the following:

The environmental implications of AI technologies vary, with both positive and negative impacts:

Energy Consumption: AI algorithms, particularly those that involve deep learning and require extensive computational power, can increase energy consumption, especially in data centres. If the energy comes from non-renewable sources, this consumption contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.

Hardware Production: Manufacturing hardware components for AI, such as GPUs and specialised chips, requires resources and energy, leading to environmental impacts such as mining, pollution, and habitat destruction.

E-Waste: As AI technology advances, older hardware becomes obsolete, contributing to electronic waste (e-waste) if not properly recycled or disposed of. Managing e-waste responsibly is crucial to mitigate environmental harm.

Data Center Footprint: Operating data centres that support AI applications requires significant energy for cooling and powering servers, contributing to environmental impacts such as carbon emissions and strain on local power grids.

Sustainability Applications: On the positive side, AI technologies can be applied to address environmental challenges and promote sustainability. For example, AI can optimise building energy usage, predict and mitigate environmental disasters, monitor wildlife populations, and optimise transportation systems to reduce emissions.

Efficiency Improvements: Efforts to optimise AI algorithms, hardware, and data centre operations for energy efficiency can help mitigate environmental impacts. Techniques such as model compression, sparse computation, and renewable energy integration can reduce the carbon footprint of AI systems.

Policy and Regulation: Governments and organisations can implement policies and regulations to promote the adoption of energy-efficient AI technologies, encourage the use of renewable energy in data centres, and enforce responsible e-waste management practices.

While AI technologies can potentially exacerbate environmental problems, they also offer opportunities to address these challenges through innovation, optimisation, and responsible deployment.

Emissions Impact Dashboard for Microsoft 365