Is working in the cloud destroying the environment?

It is estimated that the IT sector is responsible for up to 2.8% of our global greenhouse gas emissions. This is actually considered to be an underestimate, with some researchers suggesting its carbon footprint could be on par with the aviation industry.

This is obviously a concern for charities. The UN’s climate change conference, COP26, is currently being held in Glasgow from 31 October 2021 to 12 November 2021 to discuss what we can all do to tackle climate change.

While all organisations in every sector and industry should be reducing the impact they have on the environment, charities are subject to far more scrutiny from the public, who need to be able to trust the organisation they support is acting responsibly.

There are lots of ways for charities to promote sustainability and support action on climate change. Charities can check the digital footprint of their website on the Website Carbon Calculator, for example. The average web page tested produces 1.76 grams of carbon dioxide per page view, which can add up to a significant footprint. If a website gets 10,000 monthly page views, for example, that amounts to 211kg of carbon emissions per year.

Charities can also examine their impact of their use of the cloud. The open source Cloud Carbon Footprint tool, a collaboration created by Thoughtworks and a group of innovation partners, is free for charities to use and can help organisations to measure, monitor, and reduce their carbon emissions.

The tool can reduce costs by identifying any inefficiencies, but most importantly, it allows organisations to act more sustainably. You can access the tool at the end of the article.

Cloud data is stored in huge data centres filled with “thousands of hard drive-bearing racks using a mind-boggling amount of energy” Data centres, which make up the cloud, are the worst offenders for greenhouse gases in IT, constituting up to 45% of the global emissions for which the sector is responsible.

One can only imagine the level of power that is required for the constant activity of those data centres. And then there’s the lights, the air conditioning, and everything else necessary for keeping those centres functional twenty-four-seven.

With climate change already having a massive impact on the lives of millions, every little helps. And considering your organisation’s cloud carbon footprint is helping more than just a little. It’s always worth remembering that if we fail to take every part of our systems and operations into account, we may miss ways to make them more efficient.