THE CLIMATE CRISIS Finding Solutions
at HP, I talked with the head of our lab about climate change and how it was likely to be a societal disruption and that we needed to think about how to engage the company with that both from a risk and a responsibility – and possibly opportunity – perspective. As a result, I was given a brief at HP to look into that and spent two years focused on it.” Preist finally left HP to work in academia, continuing to focus on the sustainability impact of digital technology. “We tried to understand where the hotspots were. And we became aware that media in particular was one of the big hotspots.” One of the media industry’s biggest environmental impacts, says Preist, is that it is the number-one driver of network expansion. “The reason why we have fat pipes into our houses is not because of email, but because we want to stream high-quality media. And also the reason we have extensive high-power mobile networks is, again, not because of email, but because we want to stream media when we’re in the tube or on the bus or waiting for a meeting.” All these servers distributing content require a tremendous amount of power. Several of the media giants, like Facebook and Google, have been working consistently over the past few years to power their server farms from low- or zero-carbon energy sources. But Preist points out that the big picture is more complicated. “Most of the emissions associated with, say, YouTube are actually in the network, not in the origin server, particularly the mobile network. Organisations like Google can sort out their servers by using renewable energy, but the big impacts are elsewhere in the system. So they need to think about working with other partners to reduce the impacts system-wide.” These greater impacts are in places like core mobile networks, edge networks and home-network and end-user equipment just sitting in our houses. Preist notes the core network tends to be the most efficient
part of the chain, with efficiency dropping as you get closer to the user device. Preist admits that tremendous strides are being made in network and device efficiency, but it is quickly gobbled up by more and more customers streaming higher-quality media. It also enables new technologies, like HDR TVs, which consume substantially more power. As far as the carbon emissions within the industry, production itself – like the travelling circus it often is – can have one of the biggest negative impacts. “If you’re looking at an organisation like the BBC or Netflix, content creation is a large part of it. Some of the high- end productions use a lot of energy in their creation. In that case, it’s not going to be about the digital technology. It’s far more about your set, your travel, your heating. And part of it is just running the offices too. The digital portion will be relatively small.” Preist emphasises that success is going to depend on group action, not individuals working separately. “It’s not about individuals feeling guilty. Each of our individual footprints is very small. It’s the job of companies to think about the whole system and to reduce energy use across the system,” he explains. “It depends on how collectively seriously we take the climate emergency, and the impact that has on energy prices. At the moment, what will act as a driver is mainly legislation. But the European Union energy legislation – like the Energy Star certification – drives energy efficiency at a component level. We need to think about how to drive efficiency at a system level. It requires a certain amount of R&D by progressive companies to think about this. Organisations like Google do genuinely care about the climate emergency. They don’t have their head in the sand. Tech companies in general do care about these things. So we need to invest in research about how to do this, and also work with governments to do it efficiently on a national and international scale.”
ORGANISATIONS LIKE GOOGLE CAN SORT OUT THEIR SERVERS WITH RENEWABLE ENERGY, BUT THE BIG IMPACTS ARE ELSEWHERE IN THE SYSTEM
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