86 FUTURE SHOCK Streaming Sustainability
ABOUT 3% OF GLOBAL ENERGY USE JUST GOES TO VIDEO STREAMING
off is an important thing to keep an eye on,” Hazas warns. According to Hazas, a good rule of thumb is that, roughly speaking, a standard LED-based HD television consumes about the same amount of power in displaying video as was consumed by the network and data centres in streaming it there. Beyond the device a video is viewed on, resolution itself has an energy cost. “If you look at what Netflix calls Super
HD compared to rates typical of YouTube, you’re looking at three, four or five times the energy consumption at the fastest rates,” explains Hazas. “And with 4K, it will be two to three times more. And then you can imagine, if you’re watching an 8K stream, in 15 years’ time, you’ll be consuming quite a lot of energy and that’s just in the streaming.” The flexibility of tools in the digital realm means that new businesses or services can be spun up very rapidly, and can scale enormously in a short
HOWGREEN ISMY PLATFORM?
Renewable energy commitment & siting policy
Energy efficiency & mitigation
Energy transparency
Renewable procurement
Final grade
Advocacy
F B F F F F F F A
F C F F D
Afreeca.com Amazon Prime
F C D F D
F C F F C F F F A
F D F F F F F F A
F F D F F F F D B
HBO Hulu Netflix Pooq.co.kr Vevo Vimeo YouTube
F F
F F
C A
D A
In 2017, Greenpeace published its Clicking Clean report, which looked at the energy consumption of digital companies and their levels of commitment to sustainable practices. Apple and Google continued to lead the sector in their use of renewable energy, as well as using their influence to encourage governments and partners
to adopt sustainable practices. Clicking Clean included a “report card” for companies operating in different sectors, including CDNs, video streaming, music streaming, social media, blogs, search engines, messaging and ecommerce. Each company was given an A to F ranking in five areas: energy transparency,
renewable energy commitment & siting policy, energy efficiency & mitigation, renewable procurement and advocacy. Above are the report’s ratings
for streaming video platforms. Read the report here: bit.ly/ FEEDClickClean
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