伊恩•米切尔, 6point6’s Director of Architecture, 考虑机构为实现技术净零排放而提供的机会.
Finding sustainability gains that are hidden in plain sight
Sustainability is a widely and interchangeably used term. In fact a single definition can be hard to arrive at, but in essence in a technological environment, 我们认为，可持续发展意味着限制我们提供的服务对环境的影响，减少我们自己对包括气候变化在内的重大环境问题的贡献. 要做到这一点，我们需要制定可持续发展指标，并根据这些指标评估我们的表现.
Digital access continues to proliferate, 随着私营和公共部门服务对云计算的依赖不断增加. Provision of 服务s to end users, 供应链管理和数据处理都需要更强大的计算能力以及更多的终端用户设备.
Demand for digital 服务s is growing rapidly, Ofcom报告称，2019冠状病毒病导致数字服务使用量前所未有地增加:
- 22.5m people accessed online healthcare information in March 2020
- 12.6m people used the UK Government’s Covid-19 app in October 2020
- 13.7m people used digital platforms for work or education in March 2021 (up from 5.每年300万美元)
In 2021 the UK Government published a “零净策略” committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. This included a commitment to embedding net-zero across 政府ernment activity, 这意味着各部门将把零净排放作为采购和调试决策的一部分，以建立一个更清洁的供应链. 这一策略的成功实施需要所有政府部门，因此也需要所有政府供应商, 发挥他们的作用.
能源供应产生了35%的温室气体，目前估计信息技术产生了大约10%的商业能源. 除了, 制造, 交付, 操作, 处置或循环再造资讯科技设备，对成功达致净零排放至为重要. When considering information technology’s environmental impact, 人们通常会直接跳到云数据中心的排放量上，因为那里的数字似乎最显著. 2020年，支撑数字化的数据中心和数据传输网络的二氧化碳当量约为300 Mt, 等于0.9% of energy-related GHG emissions (or 0.占温室气体总排放量的6%).
然而，只看一个系统的一部分可能会忽略其他部分的影响. 例如, if you focus on data centres with significant carbon emissions driven by servers, 冷却, 水, 废物及用电量, 你可能忽略了它们通过提高能源效率在减少排放方面所产生的积极影响, less resource hungry end user devices. 然而，在我们对集中计算能力带来的明显胜利过于兴奋之前, we should note that end user devices are forecast to proliferate at a rate of 12.每年8%的复合年增长率和全球企业技术约占全球温室气体排放的1-2% -这大致相当于整个英国的碳排放量, 或者50%的航空排放.
We also need to remember that technology can be a force for good. 同时，使用微软Teams等平台的快速增长也导致了技术温室气体排放的增长, it also takes a significant number of vehicles off of the road, 减少不必要的航空旅行，减少办公文具和其他消耗品的消耗.
How do we find sustainability solutions to something so complex?
1. 理解
了解你对环境的全面影响可能看起来很复杂，但并不需要很难. 有一些框架可以通过列出所有存在的目标来帮助您理解所需的信息. 例如, UK Government has laid out rules for sustainability relating to net zero, 回收及堆填, as well as transparency and accountability. 他们还制定了明确的目标和结果，提供了一些战略方向.
Consider your sustainability impact across four key impact areas:
- Sourcing – Think about who and from where you’re procuring products and 服务s. 了解您的供应链及其对您和地球至关重要的战略要求的承诺.
- Deployment – What are you purchasing? What’s driving your designs and your approach to 操作? Are you thinking about the most sustainable designs, or the cheapest solution?
- Management – What refresh cycles do you have in place? How do you incentivise people to take care of their hardware? 您在无纸化操作和爱护耗材方面给予人们什么样的支持和指导?
- Recycling and disposal – What targets are you setting for recycling? What accreditations do your reverse supply chain partners have in place? How committed are they to supporting your goals?
2. 参与
可持续发展是全球范围内的当务之急，这使其成为一个组织范围的问题. This means that technology sustainability does not sit with IT alone. Everyone has a role to play, and this starts in the boardroom. 领导者需要在战略层面审查可持续发展的表现，并向整个企业传达他们的进展.
这可以很简单:
- tracking and reporting on paper usage or printer clicks
- reminding people to power devices down when not in use
- promoting good housekeeping around data storage
- 将可持续发展目标展示在组织内每个人都容易看到的地方
- nominating a board level owner for organisational leadership on sustainable practice
3. 计划
有了领导的参与和对当前职位的清晰认识，你就可以为成功实现可持续发展目标而制定计划. 每个组织都是不同的, and every journey will have a different start point, 但是，您的计划几乎肯定需要考虑先前记录的影响区域.
你的计划不仅要考虑你做什么和怎么做，还要考虑你为什么要做. 例如, in the case of data storage do not only consider what data you hold, 而是你能坚持多久, 你拿着它的地方, 为了什么目的?
Think about where you build and host applications, and whether you could share existing architecture and environments. 一旦你开始从可持续发展的角度审视各种选择并做出决定, 你可能会发现自己得到了不同的答案，并提出了不同的方法.
Finally, don’t forget refresh cycles and reliability of infrastructure. You may architect differently to enhance resilience, that in turn provides confidence for longer refresh cycles.
Once you have started to take these things into account, you can move towards setting objective targets for your organisation.
我从哪里开始呢??
可持续发展渗透到一个组织的每一个领域，需要有技能和经验的人与高层领导一起工作，帮助指导平衡的决策，同时考虑到它与其他迫切需要.
6point6在帮助组织了解其当前的环境足迹和制定计划以提高可持续性影响方面经验丰富. If you’d like to know more, contact us at: enquiries@6point6.co.uk.
伊恩•米切尔, Director of Architecture
Ian leads 6point6’s architecture practice and technical offerings. With over 30 years’ experience in the IT Industry, Ian specialises in driving the development of large scale enterprise architectures, 它的策略, transformation roadmaps and running Technical Design Authorities.
