Digital sobriety is an approach aimed at reducing the environmental impact of digital technology by limiting its uses.
In business, digital sobriety involves rethinking work practices and tools, favouring the most economical and ethical solutions. According to ADEME, 4% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are due to digital technology. Faced with the exponential growth of digital technology and its significant ecological footprint, digital sobriety is taking on an increasingly strategic dimension for companies.
The digital tools used for the digital transition of companies, such as collaborative and communication tools (Microsoft 365 suite, Google Workspace, Notion, Slack, etc.), have a real impact on the environment.
So what are the challenges of digital sobriety on these tools? What is the impact of the data we generate, share and store on the platforms on a daily basis? In this article, we explore these questions to help you adopt a digital sobriety approach in your collaborative tools.
Agenda:
1. Digital sobriety at work
Digital sobriety is an essential approach to reducing the ecological footprint of digital technology. In business, it involves an in-depth reassessment of work practices and tools. In practical terms, digital sobriety translates into several actions, such as:
- Limiting uses: reduce dependence on technology by using digital tools more sparingly.
- Buying sensibly : rather than accumulating new devices, prioritise repairing old equipment or purchasing reconditioned products.
- Optimising energy: contribute to digital sobriety by ensuring that energy consumption linked to digital activities is reduced.
In addition, the concept of Green IT plays an important role in digital sobriety. By definition, this includes all information technologies designed to help companies reduce their carbon footprint and their greenhouse gas emissions, and to limit their energy consumption. Green IT also refers to the socio-economic principles adopted by businesses and society as a whole to facilitate the ecological transition.
The rise of digital technology poses considerable challenges, requiring companies to implement an adapted response. The Paris Accords, which aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, further reinforce this need.
Furthermore, the law of 15 November 2021 on Reducing the Digital Environmental Footprint (REEN) has accentuated this need. The law aims to reduce the ecological impact of digital technology in France and concerns all digital players (individuals and professionals). With this law, digital technology officially becomes a means of achieving established energy targets.
The notion of digital sobriety in business emphasises the importance of closely monitoring energy consumption and actively involving employees in an energy transition.
2. Digital sobriety within collaborative tools
The digital transformation has led to significant creation of content and value: dematerialisation, access to knowledge, remote working... accelerated by COVID-19 and the implementation of teleworking. Since 2020, we have seen an acceleration in communication and collaboration tools with ever more hyperconnected users.
The Digital Workplace accounts for between 65% and 90% (source: The 7 golden rules for a sustainable Digital Workplace - Wavestone) of the carbon footprint of the IT department of tertiary companies. It is therefore fundamental to address this subject as part of a responsible digital strategy. Measuring its impacts precisely and raising team awareness are key points and must be integrated into roadmaps to align strategies with reduction objectives.
Collaborative platforms occupy an important place within this digital sobriety, because they facilitate the sharing of information and the coordination of teams. With two billion pieces of data created daily on Microsoft 365 and content creation expected to double by 2025 thanks to AI, it is crucial to adopt responsible practices in business and to reduce the ecological impact of tools.
Especially since our digital use is not likely to decrease any time soon, companies will have to find solutions to reconcile the needs of digitalisation and collaboration with the challenges of digital sobriety. Thus, effective data management within the Digital Workplace, and more generally within the information system, is of primary importance, particularly with regard to optimising storage spaces.
3. Three key issues around digital sobriety
In this context, collaborative tools therefore play an essential role. Three major issues linked to data therefore stand out:
- Reducing data volume: Our mailboxes, shared folders and storage spaces are overflowing with files. However, how many are actually useful? Clean up large files and inactive resources to keep only useful versions.
- Optimising storage: Dormant, inactive and other data that has not been accessed for a long time takes up valuable space. Effective storage management helps reduce the ecological footprint and associated costs
- Raising user awareness: Healthy and efficient file management is essential for better productivity. Identifying duplicates, deleting inactive elements and promoting responsible collaboration are all practices that contribute to a more ethical and efficient use of digital tools.
These issues highlight a real benefit for companies: controlling their costs. Analysing and optimising the storage of collaborative spaces will allow companies to generate significant savings. By being aware of these major issues, companies can therefore reconcile performance, responsibility and respect for the environment in their use of collaborative tools.
4. Best practices for a more responsible digital workplace
How to reduce your daily footprint All of a company's employees can actively participate by adopting best usage practices within the collaborative tools of the Digital Workplace. Here are some examples:
1. Improve control of personal storage by promoting clean-up actions
- Do not accumulate duplicate files or folders, shared by different people with similar labels
- Use the incremental versioning function rather than creating copies
- Clean up obsolete documents and slim down versions of documents that have not been used for a while
2. Optimise collaborative spaces
- Co-edit online rather than exchanging copies of documents
- Allow users to edit the document to avoid downloading the file
- Clean up inactive discussion groups and avoid creating as many groups as there are collaboration topics
3. Reduce the volume of files exchanged, particularly via emails
- Avoid attachments: instead send a sharing link to the desired document
- Avoid multi-recipients: this requires more storage
- Delete your emails regularly, especially those with attachments, instead of archiving them
Digital sobriety is therefore a strategic lever for organisations that want to make the most of data. By adopting responsible data governance, they can reduce their environmental impact while improving their performance.
