How to decrease the environmental impact of your app

How to decrease the environmental impact of your <foo>

The number of PCsin use around the world has exceeded 1 billion and will double by 2014

Gartner

recycling could save 11 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of PC waste

180m “retired” ... 35m straight to landfill

Be SustainableOr

Be Landfill

9 years left in the UK

*landfill

*landfill

Who's looking after our

binary dust?

Isn't the web just digital landfill?

"Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your

Telecomputer Set And Go Out And Do

Something Less Boring Instead?"

Gavin Starks

VisionAggregate all the energy data on Earth

- all the environmental emissions factors- all the methodologies and standards- all the consumption data

WhyWe need to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% - starting yesterday

To avoid mass-extinction events*

We could wait for “new tech” or “clean tech” or “legislation” (and legislation is coming)

* yes, really

Ref: http://www.wattzon.org/

Ref: http://www.wattzon.org/

Ref: http://www.wattzon.org/

how much could we save NOW by just being better?

Server Footprint1U dual-socket cluster node ~300 watts + aircon = 600W = 5000kwh

Per server: 2,500 kgCO2/annum (and costs £500 per annum) CPUs : Xeon: 50 – 150W, AMD: 55 – 105W, Sunfire: 72W

Target should be: 1-10W (e.g 6-8W Linutop server)

Information Footprint> 50% of organisations don't have decent email retention policies*

> 40% have no document classification policy*

“storage is cheap” - more pleaseclouds don't actually help here!

Targets: only store what we need. Throw data away. Store on the least energy-intensive device

*source: EMC

Why are you building an app?

fun?throwing sheep?making money?changing the world?saving the Earth?

Good Thingsdon't build that thing – build that other thing that's more useful

switch it off, or get it to switch other things off

use virtual servers/ clouds (scale dynamically with load)optimise, refactor, be smarter, be elegant, less brute force, monitor

slow cook computing

todowrite energy efficient code

watch Age of Stupid, Wall+E and Idiocracy

more function, less form

Yet Another Reason to KILL ALL FLASH?

Good Thingschange procurement cycles (watch Government)

“clean energy” data centres

“just in time” provisioning

low-level languages (machine code in the cloud?)

todomake your app self-aware of its energy. disclose it.

make your app's users self-aware of the app's consumption

make your users self-aware of their own consumption

Good Thingstidy up

build bots that willhoover up our digital detritus 10110101010101010100111

Good Thingsmake things that encourage less use

make things that encourage low-carbon/low-energy behaviour

encourage smarter movement (e.g. dopplr)video conferencing – change habitsplease could we have a better Webex? a more efficient Second Life?(A Second Life citizen has the same foot print as the average Brazillian)

Good Thingsgive everything an energy identity

build “smart-grid” behaviour into everything

build what comes next

share it :: be disruptive :: rethink it from the ground up

examples

opt-in sharingHome EnergyConsumption

BuildingCertificate

you(home footprint)

BuildingAssessor

Smart Meter

PowerCompany

AMEE enables portability around the user's data.

AMEE is the neutral “3rd place” that allows data to be passed up, down, and across, the supply chain.

AMEE anonymises the data it holds to maintain privacy.

opt-in sharing

Mode oftransport

Locativecommunity

you(travel footprint)

Travel Service (dopplr.com)

Mobilephone

Mobile service(FireEagle)

In this example, a GPS-enabled mobile phone can derive the mode of transport.

Using AMEE as the trusted 3rd party, it could pass that information to dopplr.com, a social network based around travel.

Resolution

Make energy YOUR performance metric

Shut down power stationsRe-invent the (power) grid(s)Reduce all travel

Measure and visualise all of it

Resolution

we don't just need change

we need systematic redesign of the future

http://www.amee.ccgavin@amee.cc

ps.bring your own data: http://wiki.amee.cc

Thankshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/point_and_click/115258719/apologies to http://www.napster.comthanks to dopplr, Defra and you