Digital Responsibility:
key actions to take

Responsible digital postures for dynamic and connected companies

Digital responsibility is becoming more and more talked about. This is a good thing, because digital sobriety must be quickly imposed to all, companies and individuals. We keep in mind that the use of video streaming platforms and video players emits in one year as much CO2 as a country like Spain, that is to say about 300 million tons. But it also seems that adopting less polluting digital practices would perhaps give back to computing the ecological interest it was given in the 90s.

In this page, you will find the essence of the problem and some simple and efficient answers.

• The unsustainable environmental impact of digital technology
• The recommendations for a responsible streaming
• The concrete solutions of Streamlike
• Easy to implement “digital sobriety” tips
  
  

The unsustainable environmental impact of digital technology

Generally speaking, environmental impact is defined by the study of four main indicators: the depletion of the planet’s abiotic (non-living) resources, global warming and greenhouse gases, the energy balance, i.e. the total energy spent to allow an element to exist (to be created, to be in operation, to be at the end of its life and to be recycled) and finally the impact on fresh water (consumption, pollution, etc.)

By putting figures on these indicators to remain objective, we learn that in 2019 the global digital is 4.2% of natural resources, 3.8% of greenhouse gases, 0.2% of water consumed. We’ll spare you the electricity consumption (5.5%) which is not among the impact indicators. All this corresponds to two or three times the impact of France (GreenIt 2020 report).

At the center of the problem are video streaming platforms, which broadly refers to VOD (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney …), pornography, “tubes” (YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo …) and smaller services, especially for businesses. All this, viewing and downloading, is equivalent to nearly 60% of the world’s digital exchanges.

To this impact of the uses, we must add that of the manufacturing of equipment and terminals (servers, computers, tablets, smartphones…) which is even higher!

Recommendations for a responsible streaming

Once the problem has been identified, it is possible to look for appropriate answers. But, good news from the INR, Institute of Responsible Digital, innovative practices already tested suggest the possibility of a positive effect on the ecological transition.

The October 2020 report by CIGREF (association of large French companies and administrations around digital) highlights the lack of knowledge of a majority of companies on the subject. It therefore recommends first of all raising awareness among employees, decision-makers and designers.

This report also highlights the financial interest of sober digital projects, their impact on the company’s image and its attractiveness for recruiting new talent. Positioning oneself as a responsible company also increases credibility and influence in one’s professional sector. We are talking here about the levers that can be used to convince the company to take action. And depending on its size, we dream of seeing it designate a referent in charge of a budget and a team…

Streamlike’s concrete solutions

And in practice, you may ask? The easiest way is to tell you about what we know best: what we have put in place at Streamlike:

• The eco-design of our solutions, defined by the ADEME as “a preventive and innovative approach that reduces the negative impacts of the product, service or building on the environment throughout its life cycle (LCA), while maintaining its qualities of use.” It means recognizing that it has an environmental impact and committing to evaluate all decisions from this angle as well. And adapt them if necessary.
• The use of a green datacenter. We have chosen to host our information system in a data center committed to energy optimization. Its power supply and server cooling techniques are particularly energy-efficient, the building is connected to a solar power plant and all its electricity comes from renewable sources.
• The use of the cloud, to allocate the necessary resources to the needs, instead of a proprietary infrastructure that would be oversized to absorb peaks in use and would be permanently underused. It is an eco-responsible answer through rational management and saving of resources.
• Our professional activity in itself is virtuous by its choices of hosting and broadcasting of your media. The use of our platform involves partners in a sober use of their data. They practice an adaptive streaming that saves resources.

Easy to implement “digital sobriety” tips

These are simple and effective gestures that do not require effort, but rather habit.

• Send really targeted emails, prefer links to media to attachments;
• Clean up unused resources: delete or archive videos that are no longer viewed;
• Reduce the speed or quality of videos that are viewed online if they are not displayed in full screen.
• Systematically shut down or put to sleep computers;
• Maintain them rather than replace them, reuse them rather than recycle them, etc.

In conclusion, adopting sober professional practices goes far beyond the action for a reduction of the co2 streaming linked to the video platform. We need a collective awareness in companies that combines digital sobriety and circular economy. We have everything to gain.