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The environmental impact of digital technology
Understand in order to act more effectively:
Have you ever wondered what impact digital technology is having on our planet? It is often, wrongly, imagined that digital technology is immaterial. Yet its environmental impact is very real. As professionals, it is crucial to understand these effects in order to take them into account in your business strategies and put more responsible practices in place within your organisation.
In France, the digital sector produces 2.5% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. On a global scale, this figure even reaches 4%!
Digital pollution is not limited to greenhouse gas emissions; it involves a number of different factors:
- Depletion of resources: The mining of metals in order to manufacture our equipment contributes to the depletion of natural resources. Today, we do not know whether there will be enough metals and rare-earth elements to cover the needs of both the digital transition and the ecological transition.
- Water and energy consumption: The manufacture and use of this equipment is highly energy-intensive!
- Hazardous waste: The management of waste from this equipment represents a major challenge. It contains harmful substances (heavy metals for example) capable of contaminating soil and water resources.
Terminals (telephones, screens, computers, televisions, etc.) generate most of the environmental impact, closely followed by data centres and networks.
If nothing is done, GHG emissions from the digital technology sector could increase by 60% by 2040, representing 6.7% of national GHG emissions!
And it should not be forgotten that, beyond its environmental impact, digital technology also has major social and ethical repercussions.
As a business, public authority or association, you therefore have a key role to play in reversing this trend.
Boost your organisation with digital sufficiency
Do you want to ensure the permanence and long-term success of your business? It is in your interest to henceforth engage in a policy of digital sufficiency! A few levers for action:
- Social and environmental responsibility: Reducing your digital ecological footprint promotes sustainability in the production and eco-design of equipment… You also contribute to improving the social impact of digital technology by checking the ethics of all those involved in the manufacture of equipment, at the time of purchase.
- Brand image: Adopting responsible practices with regard to digital technology can improve your company’s reputation. It is often a guarantee of quality in the eyes of your customers, partners, employees and stakeholders!
- Reduction of costs: Digital sufficiency is capable of enabling financial savings, in particular by extending the lifespan of equipment, which reduces purchases and replacements!
- Innovation and competitiveness: The search for more digitally sufficient solutions is capable of stimulating innovation within your organisation, since it encourages the development of more effective and sustainable technologies. By meeting consumers’ growing expectations in terms of sustainability, you also strengthen your competitiveness.
- Legal compliance: Two French laws, the AGEC Act and the REEN Act, are aimed at transforming our linear economy into a circular economy and reducing the environmental footprint of digital technology. For large local authorities, this is henceforth an obligation. For companies, this has to be fully integrated into your CSR policy and your environmental undertakings.
- The Anti-waste and Circular Economy Law (AGEC, loi Anti-gaspillage et économie circulaire) has been in force since 10 February 2020. It provides for the drawing up of a report on software obsolescence and, from 1 January 2022, for ensuring the availability of spare parts for a period of more than 5 years. It also introduces an obligation for government and local and regional authority purchasers to buy goods that are reused or re-utilised, or contain recycled materials in proportions fixed according to the type of product.
- The REEN Law: promulgated on 15 November 2021, is aimed at reducing the environmental impact of digital technology. Article 34 amends the Environmental Code (Code de l’environnement) in order to include actions aimed at reducing the impact of digital technology and making good use of its potential for energy recovery within the Territorial Climate-Air-Energy Plan (PCAET, Plan Climat Air Énergie Territorial). From 2025, municipalities and their intermunicipal authorities with over 50,000 inhabitants will have to draw up responsible digital technology strategies. These strategies will be able to cover local, sustainable public procurement, sustainable, local management of the IT equipment life cycle, eco-design of digital sites and services, and raising awareness of the environmental impact of digital technology among MPs and members of local and regional government, public sector employees and citizens.
What are you waiting for to embark upon a responsible approach to the use of digital technology?
The Alt IMPACT programme
Helping your organisation to adopt an energy sufficiency approach:
Alt IMPACT is a french programme relayed by the ADEME, CNRS and INRIA and financed via Energy Savings Certificates (white certificates).
It is aimed at accelerating and supporting digital sufficiency, in particular:
- Quickening the pace of awareness-raising and training for all sections of the public (citizens, businesses, local and regional authorities, and any other organisations, etc.) on the environmental impact of digital technology and increasing understanding of the issues involved.
- Measuring and managing digital sufficiency, by identifying and sharing reliable data and tools.
- Supporting digital sufficiency implementation initiatives within the strategies of local and regional authorities and organisations.
What does this mean for organisations in practical terms?
We are working to ensure that every professional is able to have access to training leading to qualifications, enabling them to generate digital sufficiency through their profession. To this end, we are working with PIX, the online public service for assessing, developing and certifying digital skills.
Our ambition is to deploy project managers directly within the regions in order to coordinate the ecosystems of local players and provide technical and financial support to businesses and local authorities in the deployment of their digital sufficiency strategies. The scheme will be trialled in four specific regions: Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Brittany, Grand-Est and Corsica.
Lastly, in order to guarantee a consistent approach at the national level, the Alt IMPACT programme will put forward a common frame of reference for the implementation of these strategies.
Financial aid
Verify whether your business is eligible:
In France, you have the possibility of receiving financial support from ADEME in order to put initiatives in place aimed at improving the environmental performance of your digital products and services.
Various different types of aid are available. Find out more at: https://agirpourlatransition.ademe.fr/entreprises/numerique-responsable
If you have a request relating to digital sobriety, contact us!