IEMA: Digital Sobriety and the IT industry (Part 1)
Techbuyer is working with IEMA (Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment) to release a three-part article on digital sobriety and the impact of technology on our environment. IEMA is dedicated to transforming the world to sustainability by providing resources, tools, research and knowledge; through these methods, they aim to change attitudes about just how important sustainability is or our environment.
 
Our articles published with IEMA bring attention to three key areas in data centre sustainability: what makes up IT equipment and the impact of these materials on the environment, reducing the environmental impact of the data centre industry, and establishing an IT circular economy.
 
Our first article is "Digital Sobriety: What Does IT Equipment Cost the Planet to Produce?". This article focuses on the impact of manufacturing IT equipment and what we can do to reduce this impact globally. By buying refurbished, upgrading equipment, and recycling used devices, we can work to create a more sustainable IT industry globally without reducing the effectiveness of our IT systems.

Key Points:

  • Digital Sobriety aims to limit the increase of energy consumption contributed by digital devices, manufacturing and services. This could be achieved by buying less powerful IT options, buying new equipment as little as possible and reduce how often we use devices that require a lot of energy.
  • Instead of just focusing on the energy usage of devices that are already made and being used, we need to look into the energy consumption of creating these devices (mining, transporting, manufacturing etc), alongside the impact of waste.
  • Recycling, reusing and refurbishing IT equipment offers a sustainable IT solution to businesses and households that minimises manufacturing power consumption and reduces e-waste, and minimises the negative impacts on the digital industry. 
 
Our first article,  is live now on IEMA's site, with the next two articles following shortly. Read this piece here.