Details

This study focuses on the quantification of the global digital environmental footprint and its evolution between 2010 and 2025. After an introduction on the digital world and its 3 tiers (users, data centres and networks), chapter 2 gives an overview of the environmental impact of digital devices. Thanks to a close and detailed study of the number of digital devices produced and in use, Chapter 3 provides data and statistics about the 2010-2025 period, proving the sharp increase of digital footprint.
The study ends with recommendations on how to reduce the environmental footprint of the digital world by 2030.

Subject Area: 1. Natural sciences – Computer and information sciences, Earth and related environmental sciences

Education Level: Higher education

Education Use: Informal education

Language: EN

Publisher/Institution: GreenIT.fr

License type: Creative Common – Attribution – Non-Commercial – No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)

Primary User: Teacher

Learning resource type (IEEE LOM): Narrative Text (theory)

Technical type (IEEE LOM): Text – Document

Time to read: 90min

Learning outcomes:

• Acquire data relating to the consumption of the equipment present (01 Introduction: p. 04-06 + 03 Evolution from 2010 to 2025: p. 19-27)
• Evaluate the carbon footprint of devices and their production (02 Footprint: p. 7-18 + 03 Evolution from 2010 to 2025: p. 19-27)
• Create a list of services to be checked (03.3 The special case of connected objects and television sets: p. 23-24)
• Create a list of behaviors to check (04 Recommendations: p. 28-35)

DigComp competence area: 4. Safety – 4.4 Protecting the environment

DigComp proficiency level: 4.Tasks, and well defined and non-routine problems

Link: https://www.greenit.fr/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/GREENIT_EENM_etude_EN_accessible.pdf

Key words: Digital World, Footprint, Footprint evolution, recommendations