In my new accidental mini-series of ‘you just don’t understand’ – in this post I wanted to talk about again the notion of sustainability from an IT perspective. I’m not talking about off-setting your business operations carbon cost by planting tree’s in a forest, or if you’re in the business of solar energy your sustainable by default etc. No, I’m talking about the carbon cost of running your IT. From Cloud compute workloads, data centre usage to the cost of running a scrum team. These are metrics you simply can’t ignore in a world that has to care more & more about this stuff.

So in my opinion, we’re sleepwalking into an e-waste nightmare. Like global warming is now only recognised by many because of the more common & regular physical manifestation of erratic & extreme weather (see recent UK freeze or fires in the Palisades LA), we’ll start to see the same with e-waste being highlighted as a problem for organisations, & as the need to hack & slash organisations who are now inefficient not only procedurally, but also digitally, wheel in the management consultants to do so. You can expect digital ‘de-cluttering’ being part of the 2025 technology strategic zeitgeist just like ‘Ai’ or ’VR’ or ‘Cloud’ back in the 90s. I suppose it’ll give the management consultants something to sell as-a-service maybe!?

So, let’s start with what I mean with ‘e-waste’. Think of all that g cloud storage you’ve had for years, 2TB of free data storage you took advantage of at the time. You’ve thrown a load of stuff in there you never use, but don’t quite know whether you may need it so you hoard it. It’s not your problem, right?

Maybe you’re a developer, guilty of spinning uploads of free-trials & instances of various cloud services but failing to cancel them when you’re done with them?

What about those iPhone users uploading everything on their device to the cloud. Makes moving from one phone to another super easy, but do you really need to keep that video of your grans 86^th birthday in Milton Keynes shot in 4k? All nine versions of it?

Everytime, you think about your data footprint in this way, you can start to see & realise the cost associated to it, no matter how minutely imperceivable.  There’s a data centre somewhere housing your g cloud documents, there’s CPU load being used to power your data models or cloud instances, there’s storage space being occupied requiring electricity to keep running just so you can retrieve that video of your gran downing that shandy & dancing to Cha-cha slide in that working men’s club!

Size this up exponentially with everyone on the planet & you can start to see the problem. This post isn’t about Ai par-se but the raw compute power needed & therefore data centres & the power to run them to support the Ai needs of the next few years alone, to get your head around is staggering. So then comes the start of cutting down on e-waste.

Now I’ve written & started, been involved with, championed & pioneered sustainability in tech, I write about it over here on Medium & when running Scrum teams, I’m always thinking about the carbon cost of the sprint. I now bake this in as a metric into my dashboards, read about it BUT, its important as engineers & engineering teams, the thoughts around being more sustainable come to the forefront of planning meetings.

Talk to me like I’m thick!

If you think about it, let’s look at the journey of a say, cloud compute workload. Say you have a website, hosted on a server, that has a shop. You take payments, you serve ads, the website has product videos, that kind of thing. (nb: I’m dummying this topic massively for the sake of this blog post)

The server will be a virtualised machine, (most likely), sitting on a physical piece of hardware (along with other virtualised machines running websites) at a hosting companies data-centre. That data centre will host hundreds of racks (density is profitable) & that datacentre will then;

• Generate heat
• Require energy to cool
• Require energy to power the servers & all the associated systems that come with a complex data centre

If you then think on top, the server runs 24/7/365 (you can’t have your website going down can you?) & it’s probably duplicated somewhere for backup & failover purposes.

Multiply this again & again & you start to see the impact this can have on the planet.

I’m a DM – how does this concern me?

You can bet your bottom-dollar it does concern you, as well as each week you may report on your project status from a ‘are we done yet’ perspective, or from a risk perspective, now you will have to start thinking about from a sustainability perspective. Look out from your nearest & dearest line management or HR dept. KPIs you’ll most likely need to consider. Did you 24-person scrum team need to work from the office / home on that particular day, what was the carbon cost of that Zoom call? What was the carbon cost of that sprint?

Now is a really good time to start thinking about how to do your calculations for yourself, your team, your digital footprint, start baking this into your retro’s etc. Maybe stay tuned for my carbonagile.com carbon calculator coming very soon (been saying this for a while!)

What about Ai – Doesn’t that need lots of data centres?

Well hell yes it does. One of the challenges is with more & more Ai being used, & the more power it needs (it being Ai & the metric f*ckton of computing power it needs) you can by contrast to what we’re talking about in this blog post, see sustainability targets being compromised because of the raw need to build data centres now! So is the notion of sustainability just a talking shop in an organisation, a bit like having a DE&I dept?

The roles of businesses in Digital Sustainability

Companies & its teams have considerable power in how they shape digital sustainability, their choices in particular around IT strategy & software development can make significant positive impacts. Things such as;

• Green Cloud initiatives – vendor selection for those cloud providers who prioritise carbon neutrality & transparency, for example.
• Efficient software design – Whether its bloated software that’s badly written, lazy API calls, using optimised frameworks & development languages such as Go!, leveraging containerisation are all things teams can do to build more carbon neutral product.
• Environmentally aware circular IT processes & practices – From re-use of equipment, having refurbishment policies in-place for things like laptops & company mobile phones, to employee awareness & education. Things like managing file storage, avoiding unnecessary email attachments, things like this can really add up & make meaningful savings.
• Having an Software engineering sustainability manifesto & a commitment to achieving it – I don’t mean just lip service, digital sustainability should be baked into your Devops processes & software development approach. Think about it now.

The business case for digital sustainability

Sustainability isn’t just good for the planet; it’s also good for business. Organizations that adopt sustainable practices often see improved efficiency, cost savings, and enhanced brand loyalty. Moreover, as regulatory frameworks tighten and consumers become more eco-conscious, businesses that lag behind risk losing their competitive edge.

Investing in digital sustainability also fosters innovation. Constraints often drive creativity, and the push to minimize environmental impact can lead to breakthroughs in energy efficiency, resource optimization, and user-centric design. By embedding sustainability into their core strategies, businesses can future-proof themselves while contributing to a more resilient planet.

Ok then, what’s the takeaway?

Digital sustainability is about understanding and mitigating the environmental and social impact of our digital lives. It requires collective action, from individuals extending the lifespan of their devices to businesses adopting energy-efficient technologies and governments implementing inclusive policies. By embracing sustainable practices, we can transform the digital world into a powerful force for environmental preservation and social equity, ensuring a resilient and inclusive future for all.

Top 3 Takeaways

1. The Digital World Has a Physical Cost: Every aspect of our digital lives, from streaming videos to storing files, relies on energy-intensive infrastructure. Recognizing this hidden footprint is the first step towards meaningful change.
2. Businesses Hold the Key to Change: By adopting green cloud computing, efficient software design, and circular IT practices, companies can significantly reduce their digital footprint and lead the way in sustainability.
3. Sustainability and Equity Go Hand-in-Hand: Digital sustainability isn’t just about reducing environmental impact. It’s also about bridging the digital divide, ensuring that technology serves as a tool for empowerment and inclusion.