Ever more advanced mobile phones, connected tablets, powerful computers, «cloud» solutions, mega servers, video on demand, online games, etc.... The digital revolution is underway, it is far from over. Its many benefits and the enthusiasm it has aroused have long obscured its impact on the environment. Yet digital generates a large carbon footprint, consumes a lot of raw materials, water, electricity, chemicals, produces waste that is difficult to recycle. Results: digital already represented 2.5% of France’s carbon footprint in 2020. Without inflection, it could triple by 2050.
An ambitious action plan
Faced with this observation, the Ministry of Culture’s Digital Services (SNUM) mobilized, by implementing a digital sobriety action plan to limit the ecological impacts of its internal needs. Of the 39 initial actions, 21 have already been carried out, and the digital service continues to reinforce this plan by seeking to maintain the balance between digital with lower ecological impact and responding to the legitimate needs of its agents.
In April 2023, Christine Debray was appointed project director «cultural digital sobriety» within the digital department to help develop, internally and externally, in collaboration with the Mission "Ecological transition and sustainable development of the Ministry of Culture ", a vision of positive and sustainable digital. " We are the only department – along with Green Transition – to dedicate one full-time person to digital sobriety ” said the woman. She added, “ After headquarters, we are now looking to deploy a digital sobriety action plan in public institutions, national departments and regional cultural affairs directorates (Drac) of the ministry A network of “ digital sobriety referents ” is established at the national level to achieve this goal.
Slow renewal
Which sober initiatives should be put in place as a priority? Christine Debray first quotes: “ Stabilize the number of computer equipment, and slow the pace of their renewal, because it is the action that has the most impact ". Indeed, almost 80% of the environmental impact of digital technology is related to the manufacture of computers, monitors, telephones, etc. The figures are clear: to manufacture a laptop of two kilos, it takes 1,500 liters of water, 800 kg of raw materials, 240 kg of fossil fuels and 22 kg of chemicals. « In headquarters, we now change our workstations every six years, instead of five years before. The screens, meanwhile, are not replaced until they are out of use. For new needs expressed by our users, we will now have to question ourselves (and the services) to find unused material before automatically buying new material ” insists Debray.
Measures already implemented include the removal of 90% personal printers in favor of networked printers, more energy efficient and set by default in black and white, and double-sided. Another lever is the eco-design of digital services in order to develop only the essential applications, pool the needs of the different services, and for the services developed, make them sustainable and usable longer on the equipment.
Cultural digital side
Culture represents 70% of the bandwidth used on the Internet: video or music streaming, online video games, online press, etc. The cultural sector also promotes the introduction of innovations in use and new equipment (like the virtual reality headset).
Let’s take the example of an opera house, which decides to broadcast on its website the representation of Carmen de Bizet. “ Some wish to watch the opera, while others simply prefer to listen to it. To save bandwidth and consume less energy, why not first ask the user whether or not he wants to watch the video? Debray suggests. Another example is that a video doesn’t have to be in 4K to be viewed on a smartphone. “ The ecological challenges that accompany the use of digital technology in the cultural sector are still often poorly identified. One of my missions is to systematize the consideration of digital sobriety in calls for cultural projects with a digital component. Thinking digital differently, trying to save it to be sober allows you to change your posture ” concludes Debray.
Sources: Ademe, Arcep – January 2023
Towards a digital of general interest
« Digital technology is often seen as an alternative to polluting activities. However, it also has a significant environmental footprint, especially since it is part of a logic of complementarity rather than substitution, explains Richard Hanna, web developer engineer, author of "Techology" podcast, responsible for an eco-responsible digital interdepartmental mission from 2020 to 2023. Above all, digital is ambivalent. On the one hand, it is emancipatory, facilitates communication and access to knowledge. On the other, it is alienating, monopolizing our attention, dehumanizing, excluding and degrading public services. There is also a form of contradictory injunction from the State between its desire to further digitize and that of reducing the impact of its activities on the environment.”
In these circumstances, it seems difficult to him to evoke a « responsible digital "." I prefer the term general interest digital "," he said. "According to Richard Hanna, the real challenge is to reduce equipment obsolescence. The eco-design of digital services (sites, applications) has both an environmental and social aspect: make functional digital services for old or low-performance equipment, that users do not have to buy state-of-the-art equipment to access these services. Administrations – the Ministry of Culture at the forefront – must be exemplary in this regard.”
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