Sustainability in IT and Infrastructure design andoperation:
Addressing environmental issues,energy/material/carbon footprint

Yuri Demchenko
CCI Seminar, University of Amsterdam
Presented 10 September 2021
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Outline• Sustainability in UN SDG and European Strategy on Sustainability and Horizon EuropeMission Goals• Sustainability definition and KPI• Defining Architecture model for Data Driven Applications optimisation• Discussion– Sustainability of the key IT technologies of our economy– Sustainability in our research and development– Sustainability in our digital habits

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Horizon Europe Preparation and Concepts• Mission-oriented research and innovation in the European Union• Focus on UN 17 SDG discussed during preparation stage

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5 Mission areas in HE••••

Adaptation to climate change including societal transformation
CancerClimate-neutral and smart cities
Healthy oceans, seas, coastal andinland waters• Soil health and food• Contributing to Sustainability– European policy on cloud computing– Industry 5.0– European Data Spaces

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(1) HORIZON-CL4-2021-DATA-01-01: Technologies and solutions for compliance, privacy
preservation, green and responsible data operations (RIA) – total 52Mln / 10Mln prj•

Activities are expected to start at TRL 2-3 and achieve TRL 4-5 by the end of the project

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes:•improve the efficiency and the use of trustworthy digital technologies to address the requirements of citizens,companies and administrations/public organisations on privacy and commercial and administrative
confidentiality as well as responsible, fair and environmentally friendly (e.g. in terms of energy/carbon/materialfootprint) data operations in data spaces, across the data life cycle.

Scope: Digital technologies, methods, architectures and processes for user-friendly, safe, trustworthy,compliant, fair, transparent, accountable and environmentally sustainable collection, storage, processing,querying, analytics and delivery of data.
••

•

•

The technologies shall facilitate sharing and manipulation of data in compliance with prevailing and emerging legislation (e.g. GDPR) fordata processors and data subjects/rightholders and other stakeholders.
The technologies and solutions shall enable safe and secure data handling, sharing and re-use in the context of common European data
spaces in various situations and application areas.

The scope also includes the combination of technological and social innovation, technologies and solutions thatenable environmentally sustainable data operations (e.g. by optimising/minimising/de-centralisingprocessing, transfer and storage of data and avoiding unnecessary data manipulations, using energyharvesting sensors/devices etc.),
Technologies and solutions for ensuring human, fair and ethically sound collection, processing andmanipulation of data, in line with the principles of responsible/trustworthy AI.

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Industrial Data Spaces: Sovereign Data – How sustainability canbe addressed?
•Decentral Control
Federated
Architecture

Sovereignty
Data Ownership

•

Trust

Scalability

CertifiedParticipants

Network Effects•Ecosystem

Security

Platforms andServices

On-Demand Data
ExchangeOpenness

Governance

Neutrality andUser Community

Mutual Rules ofthe Game

Data sharing andSovereignty are key to makevalue of data
Data Sovereignty achievedby attaching policy andusage conditions to data
Enabling regulated
environment for dataprocessing– Enclave computing inmodern cloud technology[ref] IDS/IDSA slides courtesy Prof. Dr.-Ing. Boris Otto,
Fraunhofer ISST,Industrial Data Space Association, and Prof.
Dr. Jan Jürjens Fraunhofer, ISST, University Koblenz-Landau
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SDG Goals and relation to ICT
Selected SDG goals (data technologies
linked)• 9. Innovation and Infrastructure• 11. Sustainable cities and communities• 12. Responsible consumption• 7. Renewable Energy• 13. Climate actions?
• 16. Peace and justice?
• 17. Partnership for the goals

ICT as facilitating factor for SDG:
• SDG related initiatives in Data Science
Data related technologies
Discussion topic 1• FAIR Data principles?
• GDPR?
• Data Spaces, GAIA-X and IDSAArchitecture?
• Data sharing and data markets?
• Stock exchanges and Blockchain?
• Cloud – edge – mobile access smartphones?
Industry and production• Automation, Robotics, AI

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Sustainability breakout and mapping• Sustainability in HE (Mission areas) is considered in the context of SDG• Societal impact– People and skills• Energy efficiency as part of Environmental impact– Energy re-use• Resources– Circular economy

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Definition: Sustainable IT
https://circularcomputing.com/what-is-sustainable-it/• Sustainable IT, also known as Green IT, covers the manufacturing, use, management anddisposal of information technology in a way that minimises its impact on theenvironment.
– Read about resources required for production one laptop• The Green Software model includes– Software lifecycle, sustainability criteria, product metrics, procedures for stakeholders, stock
recommendations, and tools that support environmentally friendly sustainable development,acquisition, supply, and use• Sustainable capabilities in social axis
– Practices, adding value to customers, stakeholders, and society to provide long-term benefits
in economic, social, and environmental pillars

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Sustainability Indicators: Key to Operationalise Sustainability• Three main pillars of Sustainability:– Economic, environmental, and social.

• Sustainability indicator is a measurable aspect of environmental, economic, orsocial systems that is useful for monitoring changes in system characteristics
relevant to the continuation of human and environmental well being– Sustainability indicators must cover economic, social, and sustainable aspects of humanactivities– Sustainability indicators should be politically relevant, resonant, scientifically valid andmeasurable, i.e. obtained information must be actionable.

• Global Standards for Sustainability Reporting – GRI, Global Sustainability
Standards Board (GSSB)
https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/

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IT Sustainability Indicators for the IT Industry (10 July 2015) byhttps://www.deitauditor.nl/business-en-it/it-sustainability-indicators-for-the-it-industry/
https://www.norea.nl/• The IT sustainability indicators are developed according to the criteria for financial
statements that are set out in the International Accounting Standards Committee(IASC) framework: comprehensibility, relevance, reliability and comparability.
• The GRI Reporting framework was adopted as basis for the development of theproposed framework, because it is the world’s most widely used sustainability
reporting framework.
– Most of the core GRI Reporting framework indicators are included in the proposed framework.
However, for simplicity, the framework does not distinguish between core and additional
indicators.
– The GRI framework was extended with IT sustainability indicators.

• The proposed framework to help companies with their voluntary reporting on IT
sustainability’s social, environmental and economic aspects:– 3 aspects: Social, Economic, Environmental– 13 categories, including materials, products and services; energy, water and cooling;
biodiversity; effluents and waste; data center; IT office; compliance– 44 indicators

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Economic Sustainability KPI relevant to IT Operation• GRI and IASC Framework: 13 categories defined– data center– IT office– compliance– products and services– Energy– water and cooling– Materials– effluents and waste– Biodiversity

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Sustainable IT components
https://www.apc.org/sites/default/files/PracticalGuideSustainableIT_Section_1.pdf• Hardware• Software• Network• Storage• Care/Management• Disposal• Resources

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Architecture Model for Data Driven Applications (DDA) Optimisation:
KPI to be defined
Network

Access Network
RAN

Network

Network

Optimisation targets(not independent)

Network

Network

Speed Opt

Data
Workflow

Data Collection

Storage

Share
Store

Load &Preprocess

Storage

Storage

Visualise,
Report, Store

Data Analysis

Storage

Storage

Algorithm Opt

Archiving

Conf&Econom
Opt
Conf&Operat
Opt
Conf&Mngnt
Opt

Infra (DS)
Layers

IoTSensor Netw

Far Edge

Cloud

Near Edge
CDN

Manage, Monitor

Storage/Archives

Energy Opt
Speed&PerfOpt

CPUStorage

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Storage

Compute• VM• Container• Cluster

Storage

NetworkStorage

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Problems identified: Sustainability modeling, Monitoring,Optimisation• Revise existing definitions of Sustainability• Define model for data lifecycle and whole infra stack– Exchange data between domains (data spaces – federated data spaces)••••

Model definition and simulation – use Digital Twins
Model to adopt technology change that solve many early optimis problemsAre KPI defined?
Measurement for KPI?
– Digital Twin as a container for a model– Sensitive information• Operationalising of analytic and AI models– DevOps and SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) practice for continuous monitoring and improvement (KPI and Service
Level Objectives based)– What actions to take and how? Translate model output to action• Review IoT community experience
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From DevOps to SRE: Operationalising SE/Apps, Data
Analytics/DataOps and MLOps• Benefit from current trends to operationalize engineering/development
process• SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) introduces practice of monitoring
and fulfilling Service Level Objectives (SLO, subset of SLA) by defining
Service Level Indicators (SLI)– To be leveraged to Data Analytics model monitoring and improvement• SRE may provide an approach to facilitate early DA model deploymentand testing with real data

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Re-think your digital habits: Our online Behavior
https://digital4planet.org/re-think-your-digital-habits-white-paper/••••••••

Download rather than stream and drop quality if possible
Reduce number of Google searchers
Switch to more socially conscious and sustainable search engines.
Every email uses energy: Each byte cost money
Choose a green email provider
Share documents and photos
Turn off social media notifications
Switch off and disconnect on regular basis

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Sustainable search engines (notverified):- Ecosia (https://www.ecosia.org)- Lilo (https://www.lilo.org)- Ecogine (https://ecogine.org)- YouCare (https://youcare.world)- GEXSI (https://gexsi.com/en)
Re-think your email habits• Search and destroy• Take out the trash• Manage your subscription• Avoid sending unnecessary emails andavoid sending emails to many people• Think about unnecessary quotation in
the response email

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Re-think your digital habits: Poluting impact of our devices
https://digital4planet.org/re-think-your-digital-habits-white-paper/• Use Dark Mode on your devices: Dark Mode can reducethe display powerdraw by up to 58.5%.
• Repair instead of replace and try using your devices
longer - instead of changing them even if they still workfine.
• Choose “greener” devices whenever possible thattypically:• Recycle! Don't keep your old devices at home in yourbasement, as many materials can be recycled.
• Reduce your devices’ energy consumption.

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Greener devices:- Consume less energy- Use recycled materials- Can be repaired- Limit the use of materials that can damage ourhealth- Check the label - there are a number of standards
to certify the ecofriendliness of devices.
Reduce device energy consumption- If not using your computer or your printer, switch themoff, instead of putting them in sleep mode (controversial).
- Switch off your devices completely during the night including TV boxes, wifi routers, laptops, mobile phones,etc.
- The average annual consumption of a TV box is equivalent
to that of a refrigerator.
- Limit the number of open (and unused) applications anddocuments on your devices - this consumes lots of energy!
- Deactivate GPS, WIFI and Bluetooth options when notneeded – they consume lots of battery!

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Some data on laptop consumption (personal experimentalobservation)••

Dell Inspiron 17 inch (advanced config Intel Core i9, SSD 1TB, RAM 32GB, Toch 3840x2400)
Normal consumption with charged battery and 55% screen brightness 16-18 W––•

Large files transfer (local network)––••

Open file +18-25 W for 5-8 sec
Committing changes in editor +20+ W
Refresh editor tab +20-50 W

Microsoft Word/Office: Active editing + 5 W
Playing movie from local file +5-7 W–•

File upload/sync + 12-15 W

GoogleDoc–––••

Copy email from IMAP server + 18-20 W
Sending big file (IMAP account) 8.6 GB + 12-15 W
Downloading POP email with 8,6 attachment + 18-22 W

Adobe Acrobat (Loading large file and browsing) +20-30 W
GoogleDrive access (via browser) + 30 W pick for 10-15 sec–•

WiFi 2.4 GHz up to 600 Mbps (real 55 MB/sec) +15-18 W
Ethernet 1Gpbs (real 105 MB/sec) +18-20 W

Upload to OneDrive while synching 25-30 W
Email (Thunderbird)
–––

•
•

Increase to 100% brightness + 6 W
When charging battery +80-90 W

Local VLC video +6-8 W

Netfix movie +15-20 W

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Discussion• Topic 1: Sustainability of the key IT technologies of our economy• Topic 2: Sustainability in our research and development, including
research/development stages• Topic 3: Sustainability in our digital habits

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Discussion Topic 1: Data related technologies: How much they
contribute to sustainability?
••
•
•
•
•
•

FAIR Data principles?
GDPR?
Data Spaces and IDSA Architecture?
GAIA-X?
Data sharing and data markets?
Cloud – edge – mobile access - smartphones?
Stock exchanges and Blockchain? Ethereum 2.0?

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Discussion topic 2: Sustainability in Research• Reflect on your own research style and practice– Use of cloud resource vs local cluster for experimentation and big dataprocessing• Using GPU vs general CPU– Creating own papers archive vs repetitive search and read online– Printing papers and multiple reading and marking up vs multiple reading
electronically– Introducing sustainability criteria into your solutions, in particular programming

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Discussion topic 3: Sustainability in Your Digital Habits• Reflect on your own digital habits– Using online vs offline services (cloud drives, cloud office)– Email attachments vs sharing services– Email response quotation– Video streaming vs download– Video watching on laptop vs tablet vs phone

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