Green IT to combat climate change - more sustainability in information technology

These actually no longer deniable worldwide effects of our decades-long careless treatment of our planet have become part of our media coverage.

But it was not only the Fridays for Future movement and environmental activists that should have opened our eyes to our increasingly threatened or already destroyed environment, the climate change and the fight for more sustainability. The global, partly catastrophic changes can already be felt everywhere - sometimes more and sometimes less.

Anyone who wants to leave a Blue Planet for future generations must act now. This also addresses industries that may not be perceived at the forefront as climate destroyers. But what part does information technology play in these developments, for example?

Fueled by bits and bytes

According to a study by the French think tank The Shift Project, the ICT (information and communications technology) sector was responsible for 3.7 percent of the greenhouse gases generated globally. This is more than twice the annual emissions of civil aviation. According to the study, electronic devices such as computers, smartphones, televisions and data centers consumed around 13.2 billion kilowatt hours in Germany in 2017. That is roughly the electricity consumption of Berlin.

And the challenges for ICT companies are growing in parallel with our demand for more storage in the cloud, new, smarter devices and faster streams.

IT must be a role model

Actually, IT should rethink due to all these negative headlines. And something is indeed happening on the semiconductor horizon. Concepts such as sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and green IT are increasingly becoming the focus of ICT companies.

Opportunities to meet the challenges are available and diverse at the same time. This is demonstrated by numerous projects that are also able to operate successfully in economic terms despite sustainable concepts. Of course, this rethinking requires "pain", a turning away from habits and a redesign of processes. The old admin motto "never change a running system" has to be changed. But where to start?

The main thing is to finally get started! A big player is leading the way: According to a study by Greenpeace, Apple relies 83 percent on renewable energies. It makes sense, for example, to build data centers in colder regions, since natural cooling takes place here (due to global warming, we will probably soon have to go further north or south for this). The waste heat can also be used to heat buildings. Having our own solar panels on the company roof, wind turbines, an electric vehicle fleet for business trips, or switching to or supporting bicycles, buses, and trains are other options for a more favorable carbon footprint. At AFI Solutions, we strive to implement the previously listed examples one by one.

In addition, the use of data centers must become more efficient. The continuous training of artificial intelligences and high-performance computers with countless data devours vast amounts of energy. In this area, consumption will certainly increase even further in the future.

Printing less helps our planet

Avoiding paper and unnecessary printouts is also part of Green IT. According to a recent IDC study, "Print and Document Management in Germany 2018/2019," the often proclaimed paperless office is finally gaining ground in many companies. But you only have to look around in the private sector to see how much paper is still on the move here. In B2B business transactions, it adds up to tons.

Less paper would conserve our wood resources and, more importantly, our water resources, since a large amount of water is needed in the production of paper. The production of a single wood-based DIN A4 page consumes ten liters of water.

Also, these tons of business paper documents have to be enveloped and transported from A to B, which again costs resources. When it comes to sending invoices, switching to an electronic exchange process, such as via e-mail or EDI interface, XInvoice or ZUGFeRD format, would also save considerable material, time and financial resources, in printing, enveloping, postage, transport etc. And the next postage increase from the post office is sure to come.

All AFI Solutions solutions support a paperless exchange of documents of all kinds in the SAP environment. We don't have to go 100 percent paperless right away, but we can, or rather must, finally act and all make our contribution to dealing with our earth in a more sustainable way.