How to navigate your way to a greener, more sustainable digital future

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Explore frog’s Green Tech Radar

<p>Creating a greener web has never been more urgent. There are simple principles we can follow to ensure that our digital products and services are more sustainable. First, since digital technology uses electricity as a resource, it’s key that we use electricity efficiently. Second, we should ensure that, where possible, the electricity powering our technology comes from renewable sources. And third, we can offset any greenhouse gas emissions emerging from our use of technology.</p>
<p>However, applying these principles can quickly become challenging, with myriad questions emerging, such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>Do we need to make a decisive choice between a rich web experience and sustainability?</li>
<li>Is it possible to meet our environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments while investing in energy intensive new technologies like Gen AI?</li>
<li>Is the ability to create a truly sustainable web in conflict with the desire to provide engaging, interactive online experiences?</li>
</ul>
<p>Sustainable technology is one of our favorite topics at frog, and we’re constantly seeking answers to big questions like the above. For us, taking care to ensure our internet and the connected world has a place in the sustainable, post-fossil fuel economy of the future is one of the most important technology frontiers to address. We define sustainable technology as technology that is designed specifically to remedy, prevent or improve environmental issues. <a href="https://cardsforsustainability.frog.co/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sustainability is more than a buzzword</a>, it is the beginning of a new way of thinking and working.</p>
<p>So, how can we navigate from the current digital web—where there’s a tendency to use energy liberally, and sometimes perhaps a little thoughtlessly—to a more efficient, mindful internet. How could our web add as little as possible to global CO2 emissions, or even work towards reversing climate harm and improving biodiversity?</p>
<p>Seeking the answers to this challenge is the reason we created frog’s <a href="https://greentechradar.frog.co" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Green Tech Radar</a>.</p>


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<h3>What is a tech radar?</h3>
<p>Tech radars are a recognized method for visualizing opinions on technological innovations. The radar format suggests a navigational tool, which in the sustainability space can be used to point us in the direction of travel towards building energy efficient, low emission digital technology. The original tech radar was developed by <a href="https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Thoughtworks</a>, who have been updating it every six months for over a decade. They do this with the intention to help decision makers understand emerging technologies and trends that affect the market today. Thoughtworks have also created <a href="https://github.com/thoughtworks/build-your-own-radar" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an open-source tool for building your own radar</a> and many others have used the radar technique to map out trends and emerging technology.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Discover frog’s Green Tech Radar</h3>
<p>The <a href="https://greentechradar.frog.co" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Green Tech Radar</a> has three rings: Adopt, Explore and Avoid. The tools and techniques in the ‘Adopt’ ring are the ones which we recommend and either currently use or intend to use. The ‘Explore’ ring contains tools and techniques we are actively researching and trying out, but we have yet to reach a decision on whether to adopt. ‘Avoid’ contains those which we have decided are inefficient, wasteful or tend to contribute to the use of energy generated from fossil fuels.</p>
<p>In addition to the rings, you’ll find four quadrants, which group together what we believe to be the areas of consideration for creating sustainable digital applications:</p>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li><strong>Architecture and Backend</strong> explores how the way we structure our applications can have an impact on energy-efficiency.</li>
<li><strong>Design and Frontend</strong> looks at how the decisions we make in displaying and sharing content can affect not only the energy usage of our own applications, but also the energy consumption of our users’ devices.</li>
<li><strong>Low Carbon Hosting</strong> examines how we can deploy our applications to use low carbon or renewable energy as much as possible. Hosting is linked to Architecture and Backend, but since it represents one of the most impactful ways of reducing the carbon footprint of our applications, we think it warrants its own section.</li>
<li><strong>Measurement and Tools</strong> surveys one of the more nascent areas of sustainable software development. Measurement enables us to check the carbon impact of our applications and helps us to manage energy budgets, while effective tooling shows the impact of the changes we implement. There are currently few tools which are dedicated to this purpose and the techniques which lead to a high degree of accuracy are yet to be known or standardized.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>What’s next?</h3>
<p>The <a href="https://greentechradar.frog.co" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Green Tech Radar</a> has already been valuable for us as it has supported the generation of conversations and knowledge-sharing. It is being used by technology leaders as a guide either when they are starting a new initiative to create a new application or starting an effort to make existing digital products more sustainable. The radar can also be used when reviewing the success of sustainable software initiatives.</p>
<p>This radar represents a step forward on a longer journey. Setting out the information in this way helps to inform our decisions and to set the intention of where we want to go. The real work of reaching the destination of a truly sustainable web, confirmed by data, will take many more steps.</p>
<p>It’s also important to acknowledge that we at frog, like our clients and partners, are navigating a transition into the eco-digital era. While the Green Tech Radar tool page itself is efficient, much of the frog site could be improved. We’re in the process of integrating the learnings that are present in the Green Tech Radar into all practices with clients, as well as developing <a href="https://www.frog.co/">frog.co</a> to be more sustainable. In the Green Tech Radar, you can switch between light and dark modes by toggling the sun and moon icons. Dark mode may use less energy on many devices, making it a potentially lower-carbon option. Another area where we’ve made progress and experimented in our own digital space includes a reduced carbon mode for our Chief Challenges episode: <a href="https://www.frog.co/insights/chief-challenges/sustainable-business">Going Beyond Sustainability</a></p>
<p>The frog Green Tech Radar is a living document, and we will continue to update the radar as our understanding of best practice in the space evolves. The technology and techniques described can only represent our current thinking, but there is still so much learning to be done. We’d love to be able to incorporate a lens on <a href="https://www.universalscore.global/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accessibility and inclusion</a><br />
into the Green Tech Radar eventually. As technology advances, we can expect to see improvements in the approaches available to us. In the meantime, we’ll continue to use the approaches, defining the technology and techniques to be used to aid organizations to create sustainability plans for their own digital futures.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>frog Green Tech Radar Team</strong><br />
Sean Robbins, Technology Lead, frog UK<br />
Gareth Scrivens, Head of Experience Engineering, frog UK<br />
Lachlan McDonald, Technology Director, frog UK</p>


Sean Robbins

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Insight Report

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Chief Challenges

Can you heal your digital shame with more sustainable tech choices?

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6 ways we can make our digital services more sustainable

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<p>Are the digital experiences we build a major contributor to climate change?</p>
<p>I’ll excuse you if you laughed at the idea. I even felt a bit silly writing that question down. It’s just too obvious that the digital products and services we build do not use physical resources, right? They don’t get printed using dead bits of tree or chemical inks. We do not see large trucks burning fossil fuels freighting our products from our servers and into our customers’ hands.</p>
<p>As designers and developers, we are part of the solution and not the problem, right? Well, maybe not.</p>
<p>Sure, we don’t have to look too far to find serious research on how digitalisation can help to reduce the world’s carbon emissions. The <a title="World Economic Forum digitalisation is the key to exponential climate action" href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/why-digitalization-is-the-key-to-exponential-climate-action/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Economic Forum</a> claims the digital industry can help cut global emissions by as much as 15%. But there’s another side to this story, a dirty secret we rarely talk about and are often slow to acknowledge.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<table width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr valign="top">
<td style="padding: 20px 10px 35px;">
<h2>10%</h2>
<p>of the world&#8217;s electricity consumption was attributed to the internet in 2019. (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)</td>
<td style="padding: 20px 10px 35px;">
<h2>20%</h2>
<p>of the world&#8217;s electricity could be consumed by the information and commuication technology industry by 2025. (The Guardian)</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td style="padding: 20px 10px 35px;">
<h2>1BN</h2>
<p>tonnes of greenhouse gases emitted per year by the internet. (Science Focus)</td>
<td style="padding: 20px 10px 35px;">
<h2>917M</h2>
<p>tonnes of greenhouse gases emitted in 2018 by the airline industry for the year. (The Guardian)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Our digital services constantly require electrical power. Unlike physical products, which will use resources only at the time of their production, our work continues to consume electricity twenty four hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They will continue to burn electricity for as long as they are available, perhaps forever. Each page view, every single file downloaded and every video or track streamed burns ever more resources. And the amount of power the internet is consuming is increasing.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>The internet’s carbon footprint is similar in size to that of the airline industry. You may have heard of ‘flight shame’. Perhaps we deserve our own ‘digital shame’.</h2>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be this way. It must be possible to make the internet itself sustainable. We can make a choice to become mindful of the energy we are using. So what changes can we make today?</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>1. Host services in data centres which use renewable energy</h3>
<p>One of the most impactful decisions businesses can make is to host their digital assets in data centres which we know or believe use renewable energy. If you’re not responsible for these decisions, you can learn about the energy policies of your suppliers. It matters.</p>
<p>Where we cannot use 100% renewable energy, we can seek to understand the mix of renewables used by our cloud providers and estimate the amount of energy from non-renewable sources we use.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Not all cloud providers are open about their energy policies. Encourage change by demanding the option to run our digital services with renewable energy.</h2>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>By actively modelling our behaviour around renewable energy, we can put pressure on our suppliers to become more mindful of their energy choices.</p>
<p>You can also rate your suppliers based on their energy policies and the estimated carbon impact of our hosting choices. That’s what we’re doing at Idean UK at the moment. Then we can choose to use and promote services with open and clean energy policies.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 id="6-ways-we-can-make-our-digital-services-more-sustainable-2.-choose-energy-efficient-static-sites">2. Choose energy-efficient static sites</h3>
<p>By using HTML, Javascript, CSS and other kinds of static files as much as possible, our products can be served to our customers over a Content Delivery Network. This can lead to faster load times and reduce the need for longer calls to centrally located web hosts.</p>
<p>With web frameworks such as React, the dynamic experiences our customers expect can be hosted from CDNs.</p>
<p>Try only requiring calls to third party services, heavier server-side computation or read and writes from data storage when these things are absolutely necessary. We can make a choice to be considerate about these decisions.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" src="https://wp.frog.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/21_Insights_digital-shame-climate-crisis-tech-01.png" width="100%" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>3. Target better usability because we believe this will reduce energy waste</h3>
<p>There are lots of good reasons to continuously improve the usability of our digital products. One is to reduce the amount of energy needed to access our content.</p>
<p>Every click our users make, every page view consumes energy. If our users lose time and energy trying to find what they want or need, this waste is likely producing CO2e emissions.</p>
<p>We can track the time it takes for our users to find what they need and consider reducing this time as a target.</p>
<p>When reviewing digital products, we can call out experiences which add extra steps and friction to a user journey.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>4. Reduce page weights</h3>
<p>Over the lifespan of the internet, as connection speeds have increased, the average page weight or the measure of the size of a web page has also increased.</p>
<p>When internet connections were slow and heavier pages came with a cost, page weight was tracked, but we rarely talk about this metric today. The average page weight is <a title="Http archive page weight tracker" href="https://httparchive.org/reports/page-weight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">currently around 2MB</a>.</p>
<p>Every bit transferred from our host to a user’s browser consumes energy and has a corresponding emissions cost. Let’s buck the trend and begin to reduce the sizes of our pages.</p>
<p>We can be thoughtful about the assets we require our users to download, noting for example that fonts can contribute as much as 5% of a page’s total weight.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Fonts can contribute as much as 5% of a page’s total weight.</h2>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Image files are the single largest contributor to page weights. We can choose to be thoughtful about what images we include and exploit styles which reduce the need to use images at all.</p>
<p>We might only use larger media such as videos and animations when these things are integral to our digital product. We should refuse to play these at our users without them giving explicit consent.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>5. Make fewer and smaller calls over the internet</h3>
<p>According to http archive, the average web page makes around 75 requests on desktop and around 70 requests on mobile. We should aspire to reduce the number of calls our pages need to make. We can cache more.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>The average web page makes around 75 requests on desktop and around 70 requests on mobile.</h2>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>When designing APIs we can strive to make the required payloads small and responses terse. Aim to ask for and return only the data that is needed; anything else is waste.</p>
<p>We can aim to be aware of the emissions impact of our third-party services. We can be careful when deciding what third-party services we use, seeking to understand their energy usage and emissions. We should be selective about how many and which third parties we will call.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 id="6-ways-we-can-make-our-digital-services-more-sustainable-6.-measure-the-power-our-digital-services-use">6. Measure the power our digital services use</h3>
<p>When we know what and how much energy our digital products use, we will know what their climate impact is. We can estimate how much CO2e our digital products add to our climate.</p>
<p>By monitoring our energy use, we can avoid adding emissions to the atmosphere. Where we can’t avoid this, we will know the amount we need to offset. When we collect this data, we can share it.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>As designers and developers, we can be honest with each other about the energy we are using.</h2>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>At Idean, we are actively considering the models we can use to estimate the energy used by our digital products.</p>
<p>One obvious example is to look at the costs associated with hosting. Higher hosting costs tend to indicate higher energy usage. One approach we are considering is to estimate the energy consumed per working virtual machine (or node) hosting our service. We can estimate the energy used to run one node per day and then simply count the number of nodes we have. If we also know what percentage of the energy we’ve used comes from renewables, we can derive an estimate of the carbon footprint of our digital service.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3 id="6-ways-we-can-make-our-digital-services-more-sustainable-now-it’s-your-turn-to-act">Now it’s your turn to act</h3>
<p>As developers and designers, we’d all love a future where the businesses we work for are carbon neutral. We need our internet to have net zero emissions, even as it continues to grow.</p>
<p>I’ve shared some ideas about how we can reduce the energy used by our digital services and make sure the energy we use is coming from renewable sources. But we can’t do this alone. You need to take action, too.</p>
<p>If we decide to focus our minds and our technical skills on this problem, it will be solved. A sustainable internet is absolutely possible and we need to start working on it.</p>


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