How To Be Both Digital And ‘Green’ At The Same Time

If the internet were a country, it would be the seventh largest polluter in the world, by some estimates. While greenhouse gas emissions temporarily dipped during the pandemic, the resulting crisis also accelerated the world’s dependence on online activities, exacerbating digital pollution.

Taking action to turn digital ‘green’

Here are six ways businesses can become more digitally sustainable over time.

Assess the impact of your digital infrastructure

Begin by measuring your website’s carbon footprint by using tools such as the Website Carbon Calculator. For example, Volkswagen Canada opted for a climate-friendly web design to promote its new electric car. Individuals researching the Volkswagen ID4 can choose between the typical website experience and a less data-heavy interface that uses black-and-white images and simply formatted text. According to the automaker, its low-carbon website is 50% cleaner than the standard ID4 page.

By offering customers flexible options that match their requirements, meanwhile, multi-cloud workload management provider Yellowdog says it can help companies reduce their carbon impact by an average of 52% compared with on-premises solutions.

Adopt a green software approach

Software engineers and developers can adopt more environmentally conscious approaches to software development. Goldman Sachs recently signed on to the Green Software Foundation, which was launched by Microsoft and others to accurately measure emissions and construct more sustainable software.

Rethink data collection and storage

It’s no secret that most organizations struggle with data overload. It is estimated that a 75% reduction in data would equate to more than a 75% reduction in emissions and energy usage. This involves eliminating redundant, obsolete and trivial data, as well as creating new data policies that define what to collect, how much to collect and for how long to store it. With this approach, businesses can cut storage requirements and costs while consuming less energy.

Encourage consumers to adopt more sustainable digital behavior

A recent survey found that 80% of consumers want technologies that help them monitor their carbon footprint. For example, account holders with Islandsbanki (Bank of Iceland) can track their carbon footprint through the bank’s mobile app. Similarly, Italy-based financial services provider Banca Mediolanum launched Flowe to help customers make eco-conscious choices through their purchases and finances.

Add digital sustainability to your environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives

Consumers appreciate brands that are transparent about their carbon footprint. The city of Milan in Italy has developed a tool that calculates the outcomes of digitization in terms of time, money and emissions saved to provide clear information to residents, departments and politicians.

Train your designers, developers and experts

Sustainability principles can now be added to website and application design practices to reinforce environmental thinking. For instance, designers and engineers can provide an option to switch to dark mode or use smaller images to reduce data transfer, page weight and unnecessary page views.

We are fast approaching the tipping point in the digital sphere, and the environmental implications are more urgent than ever. Brands that incorporate sustainability principles into their use of digital technologies will not only reduce planetary harm but will also gain consumer trust and loyalty in a world where climate change is fast becoming both an obstacle and an opportunity to generating new forms of business value.

Source: Forbes