Why Sustainability Matters

Ever wondered about the environmental impact of the IT industry? It’s not easy to pinpoint, but estimates suggest that IT’s energy consumption is on par with the aviation industry, hovering around 3-7%. That’s not a small number, and it’s tough to improve what you can’t measure accurately. Take AWS, for example; in 2021, it used a whopping 14% of Ireland’s energy to power its data centers.

The IT industry is growing at an unprecedented rate, with no signs of slowing down. We can’t sit around and hope that someone else will magically make it sustainable. It’s up to us to take action and align our incentives with society’s sustainability goals.

Cloud and Sustainability

Cloud computing is a significant part of the tech landscape, and it’s undeniable that it has improved the industry’s carbon footprint by sharing resources. But there’s still work to be done. Cloud providers love to claim they’re running on renewables, but the reality is often quite different. We’re producing more green energy, but we’re not necessarily consuming fewer fossil fuels. It’s a game of numbers, and the real winners are often the providers themselves.

The responsibility for making our industry more sustainable should be shared by all of us, not just the big players. Developers and engineers, this is your call to action – there’s a lot to be done across the board. Why Tech Radars

Now, you might be wondering, “What’s with this Sustainable Tech Radar?” Tech radars, popularized by Thoughtworks, are used by many IT organizations to recommend technologies, tools, platforms, and techniques. They’re not crystal balls, and they don’t predict the future, but they are excellent educational tools.

Our Sustainable Tech Radar will help you navigate the world of sustainable IT. It’s a way to keep track of what’s already out there, so we’re not reinventing the wheel every time. It’s all about sharing knowledge and building on what’s been achieved.

The Future of the Sustainable Tech Radar

Our Sustainable Tech Radar is just getting started, and this first iteration is just a rough sketch. The assessments of these tools and the scoring within the rings should be done in a standardized fashion by a committee of independent experts. This initial version (2022.11), I just made up for a conference talk, but I intend to further open-source the actual rings as well as the scoring.

So stay tuned! And if you’re interested to join, you’re more than welcome, let know via the channels on the bottom!

Feedback, comments and criticism is off course welcome as well, by all means, please reach out!

All Contributions Count!

There is this fascinating story by the Quechuan people from Equador about a forest fire. As the animals powerlessly fled the fire, thinking there was nothing they could do, a tiny hummingbird decided otherwise. Unrelentlessly, it flew back and forth between a small stream and the fire, transporting a few droplets at a time. The other animals watched in disbelief and tried to discourage the little bird with comments like “don’t bother, you’re too little, you can’t put out this fire, you will burn yourself”. The hummingbird responded: “I am doing what I can.”

The point is quite literal: our house is on fire and every tiny little thing you do to deflect society from this path towards climate disaster, is worth doing. And you should be proud of every tiny little thing you contribute. I do not mean to say that you should right now be overhauling your life in every possible way, although nobody is stopping you. Instead, start small, start taking up responsibility and, most importantly, aim to align your personal incentives with societal incentives on sustainability.

My personal advice: re-align your own incentives and look for ways to incorporate sustainability (more) in your daily work. :-)