GreenDIGIT: Project and Initiative to Lower environmental Impact ofthe Future Digital Research Infrastructures
Yuri Demchenko, Ana Oprescu, Shashank Shrestha (University of Amsterdam)
GreenDIGIT Workpackages Structure

GreenDIGIT project (2024-2027) – Objectives
O1: Assess status and trends of low impact computing within 4 DIGIT RIs (EGI, SLICES,SoBigData, EBRAINS) and in the broader digital service provider community of ESFRIs, toproduce recommendations and roadmaps for providers for during and beyond the project.
O2: Provide reference architecture and design principles, as well as an actionable modelfor RIs about environmental impact assessment and monitoring, reflecting on the whole RI
lifecycle and including the digital infrastructure components and their interaction with thebroader environment.
O3: Develop and validate new and innovative technologies, methods, and tools for digital
service providers within European Research Infrastructures through which they can reduce theirenergy consumptions and overall environmental impact.
O4: Develop and provide for researchers technical tools that assist them in the design,
execution and sharing of environmental impact aware digital applications withreproducibility, Open Science and FAIR data management considerations.
O5: Educate and support digital service providers and researchers in the RI communities about
good practices on environmental impact conscious lifecycle management and operation ofinfrastructures and services.

Lumpsum: Period 1 (M1-18); Period 2 (M19-M36)

GreenDIGIT Digital Infrastructure Continuum and Optimisation Targets

Sustainable/Green IT and RI – Ecosystem Optimisation

Energy Efficiency – Decarbonisation – Environmental Impact

Sustainable IT refers to the integration of environmental considerations into the design,
manufacturing, use, and disposal of information technology (IT) products and services.

Energy Efficiency in Digital Infrastructures:

1. Software/Applications Sustainability: Building and using software applications in a mannerthat requires fewer resources•

Definition: This refers to optimizing digital infrastructures to consume as little
energy as possible for a given workload or service. It's about achieving morecomputational or storage results with less energy input.
Decarbonization of Digital Infrastructures:• Definition: This specifically targets the reduction of carbon emissions associatedwith the operation and maintenance of digital infrastructures.
Reducing Environmental Impact of Digital Infrastructures:• Definition: This is a more comprehensive consideration of the various ways
digital infrastructures might affect the environment, going beyond just energy
consumption and carbon emissions.

•••

Efficient coding practices that use less computational power.
Cloud-based services that optimize server loads.
Sustainable Architecture Design principles to ensure durable technical solutions

2. Energy Efficiency: Designing and using IT systems and infrastructure that consume less energy••

Energy-efficient data centers, Power-saving modes on devices.
Energy-efficient cloud computing solutions.

3. Reducing Carbon Footprint: Minimizing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with ITactivities:••

The energy sources of data centers (e.g., transitioning to renewable energy).
The carbon impact of IT supply chains.

5. Resource Management and Waste Reduction: Reducing the use of non-renewable resourcesin IT products and minimizing e-waste
6. Awareness, green practices and education and training•

GreenComp – Green competences framework for researchers published by EC in 2022

GreenDIGIT Initiative: Community Engagement
Research Infrastructures Survey:• The survey will collect information about practices, policies and solutions used by RIs to manage,
monitor and optimise energy consumption, their sustainability policies and local conditions
compliance. The collected information will be used to identify, map and model the environmental
impact that RI can have on the environment.
• Join: greendigit-survey@list.uva.nl
Embedding Sustainability aspects in Higher Education curricula:• Identify and develop a set of curricula topics to support sustainable scientific application development
and operation, facilitate effective use of energy saving technologies in all research and industry
domains.
• Join: greendigit-edu@list.uva.nl

GreenDIGIT Partners: European ESFRI Digital Research Infrastructure
UvA (NL) - Coordinator
EGI (EU) and EGI Group SLICES-RI Group

SoBigData Groups

CESNET (CZ)
CNR (IT)CNRS (FR)CSIC (ES)SZTAKI (HU)

CNIT (IT)GSP (FR)SU (FR)TUM (DE)
UTH (GR)PSNC (PL)MI (CH)EBRAINS EU

Contact: Yuri Demchenko <y.demchenko@uva.nl> Gergely Sipos <gergely.sipos@egi.eu>