17 steps to take to become digitally responsible

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More and more French people own digital devices of all kinds. Whether it's phones, computers, connected watches, Bluetooth speakers or connected fridges, the environmental footprint of digital devices is increasing.

This impact comes less from the use of the devices than from their manufacture. However, there are a few things you can do to reduce your footprint on a daily basis and move towards a responsible digital lifestyle.

What are the right eco-digital behaviors to adopt? Which is the most useful for reducing your digital footprint? How can you lighten up on your e-mails? rzilient gives you a few pointers with this checklist of things to do to use your computer in green iT mode.

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Reduce your daily impact

We must not forget that individual gestures are important, but it is necessary to combine them with a more thorough reflection on digital sobriety. In particular on the consumption of computer goods.

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Reduce the environmental impact of its data

Today's technology is more and more efficient and consumes less energy, that's a fact. However, this is not enough to truly reduce its impact.

Here are some actions to take to reduce the digital pollution linked to daily use and move towards a more responsible digital life:

• save your favorite sites instead of doing daily searches or having multiple tabs open;
• Avoid sending heavy e-mails and limit attachments. To do this, use software such as FileVert;
• prefer wifi to 4G or 5G;
• Adopt lighter email signatures, without images or with low resolution;
• store your data locally on a hard drive rather than using the cloud;
• Turn off your box in the evening or when the office goes on vacation. As GreenIT points out: an ADSL or fiber box consumes an average of 158kWH of electricity per year and this can rise to 300kWH depending on the model!
• Unplug your devices when they are charged and turn them off when they are in deep sleep;
• if your colleague is close by, go ask him your question and give him your files by USB key instead of sending him an e-mail.

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Extend the life of your digital equipment

Doing eco-gestures on a daily basis is good. Extending the life of your IT tools is even better.

There are some simple tips to implement for this:

• install an anti-ad on your computer;
• Reduce software obsolescence by updating only the things that need to be updated. Some updates are simply done for convenience.
• try to repair and reuse your appliances instead of throwing them away

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Managing the end of life of your equipment for a green iT

When we talk about the impact of digital technology, we are talking about the entire life chain of a device: its manufacture, its use and its end of life. The latter can quickly become problematic if not properly taken care of.

Recycling computer equipment is the last option because it is more difficult to give new life to all the computer components. They are so small and intertwined that it is complicated to extract all the materials for reuse.

There are 2 things you can do, in addition to trying to extend the life of your computer:

• if it is unusable, give it to a reuse actor, he can refurbish it and then give it away or resell it.
• if you really want to recycle it, put it in a suitable container.

With the proliferation of digital devices in homes and offices, the major issue that will emerge in the coming years is all electronic waste.

That's why it's important to think about your digital device consumption.

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Buy less but better: the ultimate key to responsible digital

To move towards a responsible digital life, eco-gestures are useful but not enough. It is not the use of the device that pollutes the most but its manufacture.

The ADEME explains that 3/4 of the environmental impact of the global digital industry comes from the manufacturing of the different equipment. Between the extraction of rare earths, the energy used for processing, transport and storage of data, the digital bill is quickly salty.

To give you some figures,the manufacture of a computer of 2 kilos requires on average :

• 240 kilos of fossil fuels;
• 22 kilos of chemicals;
• 1.5 tons of water.

To move towards digital sobriety, here are a few things you can do:

• choose refurbished devices rather than new ones;
• favour environmental labels such as Blue Angel, TCO, EPEAT if you have to buy new;
• ask yourself the question of relevance: do you really need it?
• Share your equipment with your colleagues and/or neighbors whenever possible;
• rent your IT fleet with rzilient and avoid buying new equipment,
• Choose devices that are eco-designed or have software that is designed with eco-design in mind.

In France, business computer fleets are changed every 4 years on average, and smartphones every 24 to 36 months. That's why it's important to ask yourself the following question: is it really worth buying a new device? If necessary, refurbished devices are an ecological and economical solution.

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Conclusion

There are many good practices to reduce one's digital impact on a daily basis, but they are not enough when we know that most of the digital pollution comes from manufacturing.

It is necessary to opt for the right gestures when choosing your computer equipment and to take care of it to extend its life as much as possible.

These issues of eco-gestures on an individual scale must be deployed on a collective scale. Organizations, companies and even governments have the responsibility to take up this issue so that digital technology becomes sustainable in the long term.

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You want to reduce your company's environmental footprint and adopt a more responsible iT policy? We offer different solutions to achieve this! Let's talk about it.

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