GREEN IT & SUSTAINABILITY
that our internet society is enabled by physical infrastructure, and very few are aware that every social media scroll, ecommerce click or video social session also contributes to climate change and the generation of CO2. Clearing up ‘dirty streaming’ You may have seen that the BBC recently tried to address this, by releasing a programme earlier this year entitled, Dirty Streaming: The Internet’s Big Secret. The idea behind the programme was to bring more attention to the environmental impact of the internet, and in particular, highlight how the surging popularity of streaming services, the steady rollout of 5G networks and the growth of cryptocurrencies were causing huge rises in data use which harms the planet. While it is great that a public service broadcaster like the BBC wanted to bring more attention to this issue, there were a number of discrepancies in the show which did more harm than good in terms of educating the wider public about our online consumption habits. Our increasing internet usage, including streaming services, is absolutely one of the drivers of data centre growth, and data centres are large consumers of power. However, the programme made multiple misleading claims about how data centres depend on fossil fuels, when in fact the industry is world-leading in its adoption of renewable energy.
Caching software can be easily incorporated into content delivery networks and can cache virtually all types of content It also greatly exaggerated the power required to stream popular content, such as Justin Beiber’s 2017 song Despacito, claiming an oft-cited false statistic that five billion YouTube streams of the song consumed as much electricity as five African countries in a single year. While streaming video does require a noteworthy amount of power, the true impact of Beiber’s number one hit was about 200 times less than stated. The documentary also claimed “5G will stimulate an explosion in energy demand”. 5G will enable a host of exciting use cases, the ‘Internet of Things’ and even faster content delivery than we have today, all of which requires more infrastructure and the building out of ‘the edge’ of the network in hyperlocal data centres. But this will not cause an ‘explosion’ in demand. 5G is significantly more energy efficient than 4G, which was more efficient than the 3G networks which preceded it. There is also the potential for 5G to enable macroeconomic efficiencies through smart city technology, reducing traffic congestion for example. It’s a shame the BBC took this approach instead of educating both businesses and their consumers about the small steps we can take to reduce the environmental impact of the web – beyond just using it less often. That isn’t to mention the rather hypocritical choice of broadcasting the show on BBC Three, the online-only platform, which somewhat watered down the point.
Emissions critical The documentary did make some good points though and was right to be shedding light on an environmental issue that often gets lost behind the more obviously visible contributions from aviation and FMCGs. So, what can be done? Firstly, there does need to be a greater education of the impact of the web for the general public. A recent survey of people in the Nordics by Kantar showed 66% would support the eco-labelling of digital services in a similar way to how other products are labelled.
One of the fastest and most efficient ways to reduce your online CO2 footprint is caching software In Sweden, we’ve invented the word ‘flygskam’ to convey the environmental guilt felt when flying. Perhaps we need an equivalent for our online behaviour if we’re going to take the issue as seriously. This would be a start in giving consumers a more informed choice over which brands they want to spend time and money on, and hopefully cause brands to alter their environmental focus as a result. Those businesses that do choose to take a more detailed look at their digital environmental impact, should start with their website. Many businesses operate extensive websites, loaded with a wealth of information and rich media content. This large web footprint relies on a bank of servers that use considerable amounts of energy and have associated carbon emissions. Our dependency on the web will only increase, therefore so will those emissions. One of the fastest and most efficient ways to reduce your online CO2 footprint is caching software. Through caching, digital content doesn’t have to be recalled or reproduced every time a visitor to a website asks for it. Caching is essentially a Xerox machine for online content, producing hundreds of thousands of copies per second from a single server. One major advantage of deploying this technology is a reduction in the amount of computing power demanded of servers. This, in turn, cuts the number of total servers required, resulting in lower energy expenditure and, crucially, CO2 emissions. Good news for the environment, but also for the website user who will be met with faster response times. Unlike re-engineering a new low-emission aircraft, rethinking the approach to website content delivery is a low-cost, straightforward process which has immediate impact. Caching software can be easily incorporated into content delivery networks and can cache virtually all types of content – including from the world’s busiest websites and streaming platforms. Any online business in today’s digital age needs to think about how its website or online platform can operate effectively for customers in a way that doesn’t consume so much energy or compute power. We’ve seen websites for large companies produce up to 500 times more CO2 than their global competitors, and once consumers become more aware of these issues, this will undoubtedly factor into their purchasing decisions. As we adapt into an increasingly digital society, demanding the instant streaming of content and bite-sized news on social platforms, our usage of the web will come into greater focus. It’s important then, that the web’s impact on the environment follows closely behind.
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