Re: Greening of Streaming

Hey Dom and Frédéric,

Sorry about being late to this email string!

I am very far from a data centre or networks expert so I am trying to come
at this from the perspective of explaining it to others in a similar
position to me whilst also trying to encourage action on emissions
reduction. So here goes a few points which I would love your opinion on.
I'm not trying to disagree with anything said so far on this thread, I just
want to highlight some of the nuances in the debate because I do think
reducing data transfer is a good thing when looking at how to reduce the
impact the digital industry has on the planet.

   - If we reduced a website's homepage from say 3MB to 500KB, that will
   not directly reduce emissions in the network because the overall energy
   needed to pump data around the internet will not be affected by that
   reduction; the various pieces of hardware will still be turned on
   regardless of whether that reduction occurs or not. This might be overly
   simplistic, but is that broadly true?
   - Depending on how we achieved that reduction (e.g. image compression,
   removal of JS etc), can we be confident that we will have reduced battery
   drain or power usage on the person's device? If we really want to push this
   point, we could think about how that helps elongate the life of devices? By
   that I mean, reducing the strain on devices to download and execute
   excessive code will help them last longer.
   - I've seen it mentioned before that the thing that increases emissions
   in the network is when new hardware has to be deployed to cope with high
   peak loads. Given that page weight has increased 77% on desktop and 149%
   on mobile
   <https://httparchive.org/reports/page-weight?start=2015_12_01&end=latest&view=list>,
   do you think that this level of increase has played a part in increasing
   that peak load? To ask it another way, perhaps more provocatively, if there
   had been significant decreases to the average page weight, do you think
   network emissions would have reduced as a consequence? The IEA
   says: Estimated global data centre electricity consumption in 2022 was
   240-340 TWh, or around 1-1.3% of global final electricity demand, which is
   a 10-55% increase from 2015.
   - I've also seen papers where the conclusion is that network devices
   increase their power consumption by a tiny fraction when data transfer
   through them increases (this might be out of date thinking if that latest
   research says that there is no increase at all?). A conclusion that some
   have drawn is that website page size therefore doesn't matter when thinking
   about the emissions caused by websites. But with a tiny fraction of power
   increases based on data passing through the network, a 60% increase in
   internet users and those users consuming increasingly large
   websites/software, could data transfer/file size be an important factor
   alongside aggressively blocking bots, carbon aware computing, genuine
   renewable energy powered data centres, minimising data centre footprint etc
   etc?

I know that jumps around a lot but I think this is such an important
debate; maybe a call is best for this!? I don't want it to be simplified
down to "data transfer doesn't matter" and equally I don't want to use an
overly simplified approach to calculations based on data transfer alone.

I think there are lots of solutions to the impact of the digital industry
and, whilst I want to be realistic about the scale of it's impact, I really
think the weight of the code we're producing as an industry is a vital part
of the puzzle. I feel a bit uneasy about drawing attention to the
production of devices like TVs because that isn't in the sphere of
influence of the software industry. Yes it's important to debate but I want
us to focus on what we're sending to those devices. We're in every gram
counts territory with the climate emergency and I want to empower different
people/organisations/industries who have different capabilities to
contribute meaningfully.

Cheers


On Wed, 25 Oct 2023 at 15:03, Frédéric Bordage <info@greenit.fr> wrote:

> Hello Dom,
>
> You are right. On fixed links (FTTH / xDSL), there is no linearity /
> correlation between the quantity of data exchanged and the associated
> environmental impacts. In France, the most in-depth study ever carried
> out on this subject demonstrates this “linearity bias”. We carried out
> this LCA as part of the implementation of article 13 of the AGEC law. All
> French telecom operators have shared their data.
>
> On the other hand, there is the beginning of a correlation between data
> quantity and env. impacts on 4G / 5G mobile links.
>
> At the end of the day, the key point is to avoid traffic jams during peak
> hours so as not to have to deploy a new physical network (migration from 4G
> to 5G for example or from ADSL to fiber for example). Because it is the
> deployment of the physical network which concentrates the environmental
> impacts, particularly the last mile/local loop.
>
> Furthermore, another LCA that we carried out on streaming formally
> demonstrates that it is the production of the TV which concentrates 70% to
> 90% of the environmental impacts. The results are more balanced in the
> smartphone / mobile scenario.
>
> Best, Fred
>
> Frédéric Bordage
> GreenIT.fr founder
> +33 6 16 95 96 01
>
> Created in 2004, GreenIT.fr is the non-profit association that brings
> together the experts at the origin of digital sobriety, digital service
> eco-design and slow.tech initiatives. GreenIT.fr leads the Club Green IT and
> co-founded the NegaOctet.org (LCA consortium). Every year we publish the
> Benchmark Green IT.
>
> Last books published (French)
> Ecoconception web, les 115 bonnes pratiques, Eyrolles, 2012-2022 (4ème éd.)
> Tendre vers la sobriété numérique, Actes Sud, 2021
> Sobriété numérique les clés pour agir, Buchet-Chastel, 2019
>
> Le ven. 29 sept. 2023 à 10:42, Dom Robinson <dom@id3as.co.uk> a écrit :
>
>> Hi folks
>>
>> I run an organisation www.greeningofstreaming.org
>>
>> The Guidelines just out caught my eye
>> https://www.w3.org/community/sustyweb/2023/09/07/web-sustainability-guidelines/
>>
>> I would love to chat a bit more about this.
>>
>> Fundamentally research we have carried out and continue to carry out is
>> clearly showing that in the distribution networks energy is not
>> proportional to data traffic.
>>
>> This is a common misunderstanding. It leads to digital media companies
>> being quite wed to the idea that saving data saves the planet.
>>
>> We are seeing no evidence that not sending data reduces energy
>> consumption. We have been measuring events like the world cup streaming
>> online and more, and network energy is not related to traffic, it is
>> related to the peak provisioned capacity of the network. Much looks to be
>> similar in cloud.
>>
>> It might be worth exploring that theme and thinking about it in terms of
>> some of the guidelines you have been publishing..
>>
>> Do let me know if you would like to find out more
>>
>> Kind regards
>>
>> Dom
>> --
>> Dom Robinson
>> www.id3as.co.uk
>> www.greeningofstreaming.org
>> uk.linkedin.com/in/domrobinson
>> Meet >> https://calendly.com/id3as
>>
>>