A reference guide to eco-design of digital services

Booking a seat on a train, making a doctor’s appointment, sending an e-mail to friends, watching a video online, chatting on social networks, making a bank transfer, taking time off work, taking part in a videoconference, making an expense claim, modeling a mechanical part… Despite the impression of immateriality felt when using a digital service, the environmental impacts linked to this use are very real: the operation of our data centers, our communications networks and the use of terminals (smartphones, tablets, computers) all require energy, which is a source of greenhouse gases when the electricity is not generated by decarbonized sources. They consume natural resources that are often scarce, rarely recycled and poorly distributed across the planet.

It’s often said that if digital were a country, it would be responsible for 2-4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, a higher share than that of civil aviation. And there’s every reason to believe that this trend is set to increase. In response to this global challenge, digital technology must become greener, and digital players are mobilizing to change their practices. It was in this spirit that the guide to the eco-design of digital services was born, published in April 2022 in the AFNOR Spec collection.

From front-end to back-end

The result of the sharing of ideas put forward by some forty stakeholders, the guide provides guidelines and concrete recommendations for all organizations, both public and private, focusing on the environmental dimension of digital impacts. ” It focuses on service, whereas other initiatives emphasize materials and equipment as such,” adds Audrey Himmer, AFNOR project manager, who supervised the work. Constructed chronologically, it provides ecodesign best practices throughout the service lifecycle: expression, definition and prioritization of needs, design, implementation, use and operation, maintenance and decommissioning. It covers strategy, content, front-end (client side), architecture, specifications, user space and interface, back-end (server side) and hosting. The guide also proposes qualitative and quantitative indicators and control elements to apply these best practices effectively, such as the percentage of reusable functionalities, and the volume of redundant data loaded/reloaded (in MB).

Want to know more? A presentation web-conference will be held on May 10, 2022, in the presence of the main contributors.

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