Digital sobriety

1. What is digital sobriety?

Digital sobriety refers to a reduction of the carbon footprint, of energy consumption, etc. associated to the use of the digital technology. It is an approach that aims to reduce the environmental impact of digital technology by limiting its uses. The expression “digital sobriety” was coined in 2008 by the association GreenIT.fr to designate “the process of designing more sober digital services and moderating its daily digital uses”.

According to a report by the Shift Project (https://theshiftproject.org ), digital technology is responsible for 3.7% of global CO₂ emissions in 2018 and, according to a GreenIT.fr report, for 3.8% of greenhouse gas emissions. greenhouse gases. “Digital overconsumption”, according to The Shift Project, is therefore neither sustainable nor essential to economic growth, from which it is decorrelated, nor compatible with the international commitments made by the European Union, in particular the Paris Climate Agreement (2015, https://ec.europa.eu/clima/eu-action/international-action-climate-change/climate-negotiations/paris-agreement_it). It is then crucial limiting the use of digital technology to reduce its ecological footprint.

Information technology is presumed to be one of main sectors for sustainable development. It reduces the use of materials many activities (for example, the amount of paper we are using), avoiding physical travels (lowering the request for fuel and limiting pollution) and improving manufacturing activities. However, as all the technologies, its use should be “sober” since the excessive use of digital devices risks wiping out the benefits of the digital transition.

Contrary to what one might think, digital technology has a strong impact on our environment. Manufacturing our phones, computers and televisions requires a lot of resources: plastic, glass, metals including rare earths. Transforming materials and producing them requires energy, often from fossil sources in producing countries. Data centres, the giant servers that store digital information, consume a lot of electricity. The regular renewal of our IT equipment leads to mountains of unused devices in our drawers. Digital technology, which is developing more and more in terms of data flow and new equipment, is therefore a serious issue in terms of ecological transition.

2. How green is digital?

The energy footprint of information technology, i.e., the energy consumed to use all the digital equipment on the planet (servers, networks, terminals, mobile devices, etc.) is growing at a rate of about 10% per year. Digital devices are powered by electricity, so that they increase energy consumption. Large servers that store and process data require enormous electrical power to function and be cooled. Since a large part of electricity is produced from fossil sources, digital devices are responsible for production of CO₂, increasing the greenhouse effect. Under the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, the member states are encouraged to reform and make investments for sustainable and resilient societies, with a special focus on green and digital transition.

Some figures

A 1 MB email produces the same amount of CO₂ produced by a 60 W light bulb switched on for 30 minutes. The increase in digital traffic is responsible for hundreds of millions of tons of CO₂ added to the global greenhouse effect. In the period of the Covid-19 pandemic, the enormous increase in video streaming and the use of video conferencing and digital television dramatically increased these figures. The annual energy footprint of Argentina is lower than the digital footprint of digital technologies!

Information technology has an important energy and environmental cost: watching a video in the cloud for 10 minutes requires the same energy necessary to power 1500 mobile phones for the same time.

The IT sector represents about 8% of global electricity consumption. Forecasts on its energy demand plan a grow by 50% by 2030. However, the top 4 industries –Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google – are in the front line in the use of renewable energy. All of them either already use or have 100% renewable energy goals. In addition, Apple has also extended its renewable energy objectives to its supply chain providers.

Small steps for contributing to digital sobriety

ADEME, the French Agency for the digital transition (https://librairie.ademe.fr/cadic/6555/guide-en-route-vers-sobriete-numerique.pdf) has proposed some simple steps for reducing the environmental impact of digital technologies. Here their suggestions:

o   Buy according to your needs
Europeans change their smartphone on average every two years, while in most cases, they are still in working order. Do you really need a new phone this often? Do we really need all these new features, are new devices really that useful? The first gesture of digital sobriety is to ask yourself these questions, and to moderate the act of buying. If we make the choice to buy, then we can also choose a device more suited to our daily needs.

o   Prefer the second hand
When buying a new device is essential, choosing a second hand is a more economical and ecological option, which contributes to digital sobriety. There are more and more companies that offer reconditioned products, that is, professionally cleaned, checked, and restored. These products are a little more expensive than simple second-hand devices but offer the guarantee of being in good condition and of being able to function for several more years.

o   Choose an easily repairable device
Making a new device is very polluting. We must therefore try to keep these objects when possible. During the life of a device, it can be repaired. However, our devices are less and less made for this. Soldered batteries, components stuck together, the inability to open the device, parts not found. Manufacturers offer products that are still insufficiently repairable. This is part of what is called planned obsolescence.

o   Take care of your devices
If you want to keep your devices as long as possible, you can adopt good use and maintenance procedures. These actions would prevent 40% of breakdowns in electronic devices. This includes protecting your phone or computer, not leaving them in the sun or near a heat source and keeping their battery level between 20 and 80%.

o   Set up your device correctly
The first instinct to limit the impact of using your device is to configure it properly. For example, you can turn off connectivity options (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4G) when not in use. Disable apps that are constantly consuming data when not in use. For example, limit the use of GPS if it is not really needed. When you want to use the internet, using the Wi-Fi network is also much less energy consuming than using the 4G network.

o   Limit the use of video
To reduce data consumption related to video usage, you can turn off auto play on platforms like YouTube and Netflix. Slightly reducing the quality of the videos viewed is also a good way to limit their impact, without losing reading comfort.

o   Clean up storage spaces
All the data we produce (photos, videos, text files) needs to be stored. When they are online, in the cloud for example, they take up space in data centres that are power hungry. To reduce the impact of storing this data, you can sort your documents, keep only the essentials, delete your old emails (especially those with an attachment) but especially your old photo or video files, or store as much data as possible locally, on a hard drive for example.

o   Repair rather than replace
While it is often difficult to repair your devices yourself, you can leave them to professionals. If the failure is due to a product defect, the legal guarantee of conformity can be invoked within two years after purchase. If the fault is elsewhere or if the warranty has expired, you can take your device to a professional repairer or to a Repair Café where repairers will help you and teach you how to fix it.

o   Recycle as a last resort
You can bring your electronic equipment to the seller who has the obligation to take it back under certain conditions. 

Ultimately, digital sobriety is something we must strive towards collectively. At a time when we can no longer afford to develop a new technology or a new use just “because we can do it”, society as a whole must ask itself: is this technology or is this usage “useful to us”? It is this notion of collective utility that offsets the environmental costs of a particular technology or use.

3. Suggestions for further reading

At the URL https://epale.ec.europa.eu/en/blog/digital-sobriety-how-can-we-adapt-our-uses-positive-impact-environment, you can find the article “Digital sobriety: how can we adapt our uses for a positive impact on the environment?”, by Antoine Amiel, who presents some ideas born within the Shift project (https://theshiftproject.org/en/category/thematic/digital/).

The We Are Museums association (https://www.wearemuseums.com) has been working on a roadmap called “Museums on the Climate Journey” (https://www.wearemuseums.com/museumsonetheclimatejourney), presenting some practical actions to be taken by GLAMs to tackle this issue.