Responsible digital technology: an imperative for a sustainable future
In the age of digital transformation, responsible digital technology emerges as a necessary response to the environmental and social challenges posed by the intensive use of technology. Whether through the energy impact of data centers and devices or the inequalities created by unequal access to technology, responsible digital technology aims to promote ethical and sustainable use of digital tools.
Responsible digital technology thus refers to a set of practices aimed at minimizing the ecological footprint of digital technologies while maximizing their social and environmental benefits. It encompasses aspects such as reducing energy consumption, sustainable management of electronic waste, and equitable accessibility to technologies.
The principle of responsible digital technology is based on 4 principles:
Eco-design : Develop software and digital services that consume fewer resources.
Equipment durability : Encourage repair and reuse of electronic devices to extend their lifespan.
Accessibility : Ensure that technologies are accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.
Education and awareness : Promote training and awareness of responsible digital practices.
How to Adopt a Responsible Digital Approach as a Company?
Adopt Eco-design: Integrate eco-design practices into software development to minimize their environmental impact.
Invest in Green Data Centers: Use data centers powered by renewable energy and designed to be energy efficient.
Promote Sustainability: Encourage practices such as repairing and reusing equipment within the company.
Awareness and training on the environmental issues of digital technology, through workshops such as the digital fresco.
What are the solutions used by UrbanThink?
Technical Choices
In order to mitigate the environmental impact of our platform, choices have been made :
Web platform usable with a standard browser consuming few resources on the user’s device.
Use of a solution hosted by the publisher, to allow for optimization and pooling of server resources at the publisher.
Pooling of data processing resources of our clients while ensuring a fine management of security to maintain the confidentiality of each client’s data.
Serve standard data layers from our infrastructure to integrate them into the GIS without duplicating the data to it.
Data centers commit to reducing their carbon emissions by 2030 and commit to sourcing renewable electricity.
Controlling the impact of data volume
The collection and storage of data is a major issue for our platform. It is also the largest source of environmental impact of our platform due to the resource consumption generated by networks during collection, the use of computing resources during processing, and the use of resources for storage.
It is essential to only collect the data necessary for the needs of the use cases and to control the growth of this data over time to avoid an accumulation effect.
Equipment
To limit our footprint related to IT equipment, we extend the lifespan of our workstations through internal hardware maintenance.
Roadmap
To further reduce our carbon footprint due to digital, we are using refurbished equipment for IT and telephony.
Consider the principles of eco-design from the start of developments, as well as correcting existing systems such as the redesign of the website.
Study hosting solutions with the least environmental impact, particularly cloud solutions.
Decommissioning of canceled clients.
Monitoring Indicators
Monitoring indicators will be implemented and are essential for tracking our digital footprint and evaluating the actions taken. Our carbon footprint report conducted in 2023 identified an emission of 38 tCO2eq in 2022. Other indicator measures will follow, particularly related to the lifespan of equipment and the volume of data to monitor the actions taken.
Objectives of the UrbanThink platform
Our applications are designed to help companies in their decarbonization process by accelerating decision-making and providing real-time monitoring. The tools enable a comprehensive assessment of activities or projects of companies, communities, institutions… through the calculation of referenced indicators for real-time visualization of ecological and energy performances.
Responsible digital technology is an essential approach to reconcile the benefits of digital technologies with sustainability imperatives. By adopting more environmentally friendly practices, we can contribute to building a more sustainable future.
