Environmental Impact of Digital Technology: Causes and Perspectives
Digital technology accounts for nearly 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. There are three main sources:
- Our devices (79%): Producing our phones, computers, and other equipment requires fossil energy resources, and using them involves electricity consumption.
- Our data centers (16%): Dedicated to data storage, these servers run continuously and emit heat, which requires energy-intensive cooling systems.
- The networks (5%): Fixed and mobile networks consume a lot of electricity and require the production of equipment such as internet boxes.
Even more concerning, according to estimates, the growth of digital technology is such that it could represent 6.7% of French emissions by 2040. Faced with the ongoing increase in our digital usage, a study by ADEME and Arcep has in fact demonstrated worrisome future consequences of digital technology on the environment.
The legislator mobilized: towards eco-design requirements?
Since 2020, several major reports have taken stock and proposed solutions regarding the environmental impact of digital technology. For example, the ARCEP report “For sustainable digital technology” and the roadmap published by the French National Digital Council in 2020 paved the way for several regulations.
Indeed, two major successive laws provided measures for responsible digital practices: the AGEC Law (“Anti-Waste and Circular Economy,” AGEC) and the REEN Law (REEN). Their goals include:
- Improving information and protection for consumers;
- Extending the lifespan of digital products;
- Requiring the State and public institutions to integrate these issues into their purchasing policies and implement a responsible digital strategy;
- Promoting data centers and networks that prioritize renewable energy.
It should be noted that the legislative process seems to follow that of personal data protection (GDPR) and digital accessibility (RGAA), suggesting that eco-design and RGESN criteria could become mandatory in the coming years—first for public institutions, and perhaps later for large companies.
Why take action?
In view of the climate emergency, organizations must equip themselves with eco-designed digital tools (software, applications, websites, etc.), especially when creating, redesigning, or updating these. We have a stake in this as citizens, and we also have the opportunity as socio-economic actors. Moreover, given the legislative path being pursued, it also seems in all our interests to anticipate constraints that may soon be imposed on us. For all these reasons, we have chosen to receive training, to integrate tools, and to include measurable requirements in our specifications.
Our three areas of action as a web agency
- Eco-design: For each Drupal project, we minimize the environmental impact at every stage of the lifecycle, thus reducing the load on devices, data centers, and networks.
- Company impact: Raising employee awareness and implementing solutions to reduce emissions daily.
- The choice of a sustainable data center: Our partner Digital Reality is a data center located in Marseille, operating on a circular economy model. It draws water from nearby city mines to cool its servers and redistributes the resulting hot water to buildings. This uses 30 times less energy than a traditional cooling solution.
The RGESN, the official reference for an eco-designed digital project
The General Reference Framework for Eco-design of Digital Services (RGESN) is a list of 78 criteria organized into 8 themes: strategy, specification, architecture, UX/UI, content, front-end, back-end, and hosting. It is the result of work by the Interministerial Directorate for Digital (DINUM), the Ministry of Ecological Transition, ADEME, and the Institute for Responsible Digital Technology. Each criterion presents the purpose of the criterion, how to implement it, and a way to test or check its implementation.
The RGESN aims to encourage eco-design by inspiring a reevaluation of current practices and needs. Although it still lacks maturity and precision, this ‘intent-based’ reference framework encourages engagement in an eco-design approach, leaving significant room for interpretation and relying on the users' good faith.
Our reference and evaluation tools
Beyond knowledge of eco-design best practices, we use a variety of tools. On the one hand, there are specialized reference guides such as the book by the GreenIT collective: “Web Eco-Design: The 115 Best Practices”, which is very educational, more comprehensive than the RGESN, and stricter. On the other hand, there are evaluation tools such as the eco-index and the Green IT Analysis plug-in, which provide an overall page score and assess metrics such as its weight, complexity, greenhouse gas emissions, and number of requests.
Encourage our clients to commit to an eco-design approach
Today, many calls for tenders reflect the environmental concerns linked to digital technology. In fact, eco-design is regularly an important evaluation criterion for candidates’ proposals. We are delighted about this!
However, we also observe that once the projects are underway, these concerns often become secondary to functionalities, design, business needs, and technically complex considerations that absorb much of our attention and discussions. In light of this, we must uphold a mutual sense of vigilance to integrate and respect eco-design requirements throughout the process. To meet this imperative, we have established a strong and committed methodology.
A solid and engaging eco-design methodology
- Initialization: Criteria selection
Mutual engagement workshop, allowing the predetermined eco-design score to be set based on the RGESN. - During: Verification and arbitration
Regular checkpoints to ensure compliance with eco-design best practices at each stage. - Finalization: Assessment and report
Assessment of the site's eco-design and delivery of a report. - Eco-design declaration
Audit based on the RGESN, publication of results, and setting improvement goals.
Digital eco-design, a shared responsibility between the web agency and the client
Based on the RGESN, we have pre-sorted the eco-design criteria:
- Always compliant: Criteria that we systematically comply with.
- Never compliant: Criteria that are currently too complicated to implement.
- Depends on the project: Criteria that vary depending on the functional scope of the project.
- Depends on the client: Criteria that require the client’s approval.
By default, our technology stack, the result of our experience and ongoing improvement efforts, has a compliance level with the RGESN of at least 43% and up to 93%, depending on the scope and the decisions we make with the client.
Together, let’s commit to responsible digital practices
In the face of the climate emergency, it is essential for all organizations to adopt more sustainable digital solutions, especially when creating, redesigning, or evolving their websites. Legislation is encouraging us in this direction; the RGESN and various evaluation tools are there to support us. As a web agency, we have taken concrete steps to reduce the environmental impact of the digital projects entrusted to us: raising awareness among our team, choosing a sustainable datacenter, applying the eco-design criteria of the RGESN, and more. However, this challenge also depends on our partners and clients. Together, we can create a more sustainable digital world. Contact us today to start this transformation and help build a greener future for everyone.
