Is Sustainable Computing an Oxymoron?

As Earth Day approaches, organizations shed light on any and all sustainability work they can claim credit for. This had me thinking about how sustainability is impacted by the technology center and how our ever-increasing digital usage contributes to the environment. In our digitally-driven world, computing resources have become essential for both personal and professional tasks. However, the convenience of computing comes with a hidden cost: environmental impact. From data centers to AI algorithms, our reliance on computing infrastructure contributes to carbon emissions and energy consumption, raising the question: Is sustainable computing an oxymoron?

The Hidden Costs of Computing Resources

Data centers, the backbone of modern computing, consume vast amounts of energy. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), data centers consumed around 200 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2020, accounting for about 4% of global electricity demand. This consumption is projected to increase as digitalization expands.

Email, seemingly innocuous, also has an environmental footprint. Storing emails on servers requires energy, and as our digital communication grows, so does the energy consumption. A study by the University of Michigan found that storing one gigabyte (GB) of data in the cloud can produce up to 4.1 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per year.

Artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, poses additional challenges. Training large AI models demands significant computational power, often fueled by energy-intensive CPUs and GPUs. OpenAI's GPT-3 model, for instance, reportedly emits over 626,000 kg of CO2e during training, equivalent to nearly five times the lifetime emissions of the average car.

The Challenge of Collective Action

Like most challenges with tackling sustainability issues, the problem is built up from 1000s miniscule decisions that add up to an enormous impact. Given the small impact on individual decisions it is hard to weigh the importance of sustainability when the impact at the individual level is so low. It takes extreme organization and unified action across multiple parties to put a dent in our environmental impact. While individual organizations may recognize the importance of reducing their environmental footprint, navigating the distributed nature of sustainability poses significant obstacles to achieving meaningful change. As there is limited low-hanging-fruit or areas where one change could make a drastic impact, organizations must create unified action across their domain. 

The Path to Sustainable Computing

While the environmental impact of computing is undeniable, there's hope for a sustainable future. Adopting energy-efficient practices, such as optimizing data center cooling systems and transitioning to renewable energy sources, can mitigate the carbon footprint of computing infrastructure. Innovations in AI, such as more efficient algorithms and hardware acceleration, offer promising avenues for reducing energy consumption.

Make sustainability a priority: To ensure sustainable computing practices, it's imperative for company leaders to prioritize environmental concerns at the core of their business strategies. This entails integrating sustainability into the company's vision, mission, and decision-making processes, with clear goals and objectives set to reduce environmental impact. Implementing robust policies and governance structures is essential to enforce sustainability practices across all levels of the organization, fostering accountability and ensuring alignment with environmental objectives.

Empower conscious consumption: Encouraging individual contributors to make environmentally conscious choices is key to driving sustainable computing practices. Providing transparent information about the environmental impact of computing products and services enables consumers to make informed decisions based on sustainability criteria. Establishing eco-labeling and certification schemes can further incentivize companies to adopt sustainable practices while enabling consumers to easily identify eco-friendly options.

Build in optimization for continuous improvement: We know technologies are constantly changing - so we should embed sustainability into our practices so as we change technology stacks, we do not lose our sustainability efficiencies. Continuous optimization is essential for improving the environmental performance of computing operations over time. Conducting comprehensive lifecycle assessments allows organizations to evaluate the environmental impact of their products and services and identify areas for improvement. By implementing real-time monitoring systems, organizations can track energy consumption, carbon emissions, and environmental performance, enabling them to proactively identify opportunities for optimization. 

Go beyond renewable resources: While renewable energy sources are crucial for reducing carbon emissions, it's essential to recognize that energy itself remains a finite resource. Therefore, organizations must prioritize energy efficiency measures and optimization strategies to minimize energy consumption and maximize resource utilization, even when relying on renewable energy sources. Embracing principles of resource conservation and circular economy practices can further minimize waste generation and maximize the reuse, recycling, and make IT systems even more resilient. By fostering innovation and collaboration with industry partners and research institutions, organizations can drive advancements in sustainable computing and develop technologies that reduce dependency on finite resources while ensuring a greener future for computing operations.

The Importance of Conscious Design

As we advance technologically, it's crucial to prioritize sustainability in computing infrastructure. Designing with environmental consciousness can minimize our impact on the planet. This includes optimizing software for energy efficiency, adopting circular economy principles for hardware, and investing in renewable energy.

Sustainable computing is not an oxymoron; it's a necessity. By acknowledging the environmental impact of computing resources and implementing sustainable practices, we can mitigate our carbon footprint and build an eco-friendlier digital ecosystem. However, it requires collective effort—from individuals to corporations—to prioritize sustainability in technology development.

By Ellie Najewicz