FrançaisGet started

The environmental impact of an information system

The footprint of an organisation's information system: manufacturing versus use, the scopes of a greenhouse gas inventory, a data centre's PUE, the levers of an IT department and the AGEC and REEN laws.

  • 27 cards
  • 6 topics
  • Free
Study this deck

The outline, topic by topic

Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.

  1. Concepts
  2. Questions
  3. Sort and link
  4. The numbers
  5. Scenarios
  6. Understand

A few cards from the deck

  • Digital environmental footprint: what is it?

    Show the answer

    All the pressures digital technology puts on the environment: greenhouse gas emissions, use of electricity, water and metals, waste, across devices, networks and data centres.

    It splits across three tiers (devices, networks, data centres) and comes from manufacturing equipment as much as from using it.

  • A data centre goes from a PUE of 1.6 to 1.3. What does this show?

    • Less overhead energy (cooling, UPS) per kWh reaching the equipment
    • Its IT equipment consumes 20% less
    • Its total carbon footprint has halved
    • Its servers compute faster for the same energy
    Show the answer

    Less overhead energy (cooling, UPS) per kWh reaching the equipment

    PUE only compares total energy with the equipment's. It can fall while the equipment consumes more, and it says nothing of computing speed or the electricity's source.

  • For a device, the largest share of the footprint comes from its …, which makes extending its lifetime the first lever.

    Show the answer

    For a device, the largest share of the footprint comes from its manufacturing, which makes extending its lifetime the first lever.

    Replacing a device with a more frugal model almost never pays back the new one's manufacturing footprint.

  • Life cycle assessment: what is it?

    Show the answer

    A method that quantifies the impacts of a product or service from raw material extraction to end of life, through manufacturing, transport and use.

    It avoids moving the problem elsewhere: equipment that is frugal in use but heavy to make can have a worse balance than an older device kept longer.

Study this deck