After 4 months of a full-time deep dive on Green IT and Web Sustainability, I recently realized how useful it would have been for the Managing Director I was at Aviv Group to receive all the tips & facts gathered these past months. So I’m happy to share with you the letter I would have loved to receive … from me 🙂
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“Dear Gaël,
I hope this letter does not find you under the water but I know it does 😉
You care about the impact of what you do at work. There’s good news: you aren’t
working for a big bad unethical Tech Giant; the godwin point of ethics in Digital as
Fabrice des Mazery writes. Your company brings clarity in a complex process and helps
people during the most important investment decision of their life which is choosing
their home.
I know you are also rightfully concerned about climate change and the other
ecological crises threatening our future. You support the sustainable initiative at
Axel Springer Group level. With other colleagues, you push for AWS to become greener
and run 100% on low-carbon electricity. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. If
you dive deeper you will hear about resource exhaustion, water consumption, the huge
footprint of device manufacturing, bloatware, and the list goes based on, based on
comprehensive analyses made by trailblazers like Greenit.fr, ClimateAction.tech or Tom Greenwood.
For instance, do you know how much of a smartphone can really be recycled? Less than 20%!
Consider switching your procurement policy to 100% reconditioned equipments to save the planet 🌍.
So many issues and - fortunately - so many ways to make an impact. If you bring
everyone around the table (Product, Tech, Data, Marketing, Sales, etc.), you'll be
surprised how everyone faces the same dilemma and holds together the keys to reduce
your environmental footprint.
Once you have raised the awareness with great tools like the Digital Collage, make
training your primary focus. Get some help if needed to benefit from a fresh
perspective and start doing small, pragmatic, collaborative actions as you do on
many other topics. Smoothly incorporate them in your product management cycle, your
procurement process, etc. Soon you will see a great momentum ramping-up in your
company. A momentum which brings also nice side-effects like a deeper sense of
satisfaction among employees, easier recruitment or - quite often - savings!"
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Last time I checked, the DeLauren still does not time travel. Too bad for making a difference in 2021. But, I will be 100% focused on helping teams build greener digital products starting February 2022. And helping executives leverage this needed change toward sustainable IT as a strategic opportunity.
Meanwhile, if you want to learn more about Green IT and web sustainability, follow Green I/O, the podcast for doers building a greener digital world, one byte at a time. Subscribe and in a few days, you will be able to listen to the first episode featuring Fershad Irani, an amazing expert in Web Sustainability & Performance giving tips on how to save tons of carbon emissions here!