Rzilient made the Digital Fresco

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Last week, we did the Digital Fresco. A playful workshop dedicated to exploring the causes and consequences of digital pollution, it is obvious that we had to do it internally given our core business.

Did you know that it takes 800 kg of materials and resources to manufacture a 2 kg computer? That only 17% of the world's waste is recycled, and that recycling is very partial? Or that our digital uses consume electricity, two thirds of which comes from fossil fuels?

We had most of the orders of magnitude in mind, La Fresque allowed us to put things on the table and give us an overall and comprehensive view of the environmental and social issues of digital.

A little feedback.

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Laying the foundations: the hidden side of our digital uses.

The maps provide overwhelming evidence of the pollution caused by our IT uses. The entire life cycle of the digital universe - consisting of terminals, network infrastructure and data centers - has impacts on climate change, biodiversity loss, resource shortages, local pollution, and health.

A shocking reality emerges when the human lives at stake are exposed, as Camille testifies:

I knew that the management of the end of life of digital devices was problematic and that the solutions were only partial today. But I was shocked to learn that 60% of WEEE is illegally exported to underdeveloped countries, seriously impacting the health of local people...

Camille, Sales & Partnerships Manager

Indeed, it is user equipment, network infrastructures and data centers that must be manufactured, operated and processed at the end of their life. To do this, we consume electricity and fossil fuels, in short, we use up non-renewable resources. As Frédéric Bordage points out, digital technology is a critical resource that will be exhausted in 30 years.

However, one should not sink into despair at the end of this observation. Hence the interest of the part concerning the solutions, as shown by these pretty smiles.

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Getting your head above water: solutions exist, let's apply them.

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Then comes the part dedicated to solutions to get out of the water and take action to drastically reduce the iT footprint. We collectively thought about the impact and the ease or difficulty of implementing each action described on about thirty cards.

A multitude of resolutions are made and to be made, and at many levels of commitment. Every action, every solution counts. If none is to be minimized, we must learn to prioritize them. Guillaume's little drawings, to decorate the whole.

I've had my computer for 8 years, I'm not ready to change it!
Damien
, CIO

Rzilient exists precisely to apply these solutions on a large scale within companies. Drawing cards describing what we've been doing for the past year has put a smile on all of our faces. And this is just the beginning!

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After the workshop, the action.

Awareness and education are a first step, it is now up to us to apply this learning and contribute to the fight against digital pollution.

This workshop motivated us all the more as it reinforced our conviction of the impact of Responsible Digital and green iT.
Alexis
, co-founder

The Digital Fresco is to be taken as an exercise in lucidity, confronting us with our own paradoxes, contradictions and limits. Our lifestyles are not sustainable. It is not about making us depressed and give up, driven by a feeling of helplessness. On the contrary, it is about getting out of this daydream lulled by the illusion of green growth, and providing all the keys to drastically modify our behaviors - at the individual, corporate and collective levels.

Indeed, there will be no ecological transition without sobriety.

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IT is far from being immaterial and our digital uses pollute. Too much.

Let us act. Together. Now. 💚

You too can take part in the Digital Fresco to understand the environmental and social issues of digital technology. Do you want to get involved in green iT and RNE? Let's talk about it!