A few weeks back, volunteers and members of ClimateAction.tech (CAT) joined Green IO to bring sustainability awareness to the apidays conference in London. We learned about digital sustainability with special deep dives on AI, and had a great time helping tech workers understand more about IT sustainability and inspiring them to take climate action at work.
The apidays conference brings together stakeholders in IT and tech seeking to learn about the latest trends and developments in the API industry. Just like last year, the Green IO podcast (hosted by CAT member Gaël Duez) partnered with apidays to bring a focus on sustainability – offering talks and sharing knowledge and tools at the dedicated booths, all under the banner of Green IO London.
Members of the CAT community spoke about climate & tech on stage, promoted the community at our shared booth, and got the chance to meet each other in person.
Take-aways from the sustainability talks
The Green IO room was packed all day long, demonstrating the rising interest in climate action. Here are a few of our learnings.
1. We must address the climate impact of AI
Right from the outset, Anne Currie set the tone for the day with her talk Forget SkyNet, will the energy consumption of AI destroy humanity?, and there wasn’t a single talk that didn’t at least mention AI. The energy consumption of power-hungry AI models is accelerating rapidly, and addressing this is essential. Anne argues we need an acceleration of renewable energy production to match the increased demand, as well as creative thinking. Efficiency savings alone are not enough.
2. Embedding digital sustainability within large organisations can have an out-sized impact
We heard from representatives from government departments on how measures such as sustainable approaches to procurement of digital infrastructure can create surprisingly large carbon savings and reduce e-waste. Others talked about how Gov.uk’s AI Playbook aims to embed responsible AI use, ensuring employees understand its impact and ethical issues. For large organisations such as these, which employ thousands of people and reach millions of users, driving cultural change has real power.
3. Good for the planet can also be good for business
A theme of the conference was the question “Good for business, good for the planet?”, inviting the speakers and audience to explore this question. Natalie Pullin from HSBC showed that setting and working towards ambitious Net Zero targets for how the company buys, ships, and uses digital devices and tools, results in real business benefits. Others showed that we can learn lessons from other sectors like the finance sector, and implement green measures (such as using smaller AI models that are more suitable for certain tasks) that also lead to cost savings.
4. We need creativity more than ever
We need novel, creative approaches to solving the problem of increased energy and water use from data centres. Charlie Beharrell from Heata and CAT member Mark Buss from Ovo demonstrated how we can (quite literally) think outside the box by using the heat energy that is wasted from data centres to heat water for homes. CAT member Dryden Williams from CarbonRunner also talked about how energy can be saved by shifting development workflows (compute) to different locations according to green energy availability.
Elsewhere, CAT member Ismael Velasco surprised us all with a moving, impromptu live performance, proving that art and creativity is a vital tool for spurring climate action, one that we should never lose sight of.
5. We need to think systematically
Claire Robinson and CAT member Ben Tongue (from Transform and the NHS respectively) argued that when thinking about sustainability, we also need to think about adaptation to increasingly frequent climate events. This was illustrated by their case study of a major power failure caused by a heatwave at a busy NHS hospital, which had a catastrophic impact on patients. They demonstrated that we cannot just consider these problems in isolation: an incident like this has knock-on effects for many systems beyond just the ones on the front line.
We also need to think about how interconnected systems can work together on solutions. Later in the day, CAT member and volunteer Hannah Smith discussed the Green Web Foundation’s proposal for carbon.txt, a new and universal way to increase transparency of companies’ sustainability reporting.
6. Consider your red lines
To round off the thought-provoking day, Ian Brooks asked us to consider not just the impact of our digital activities, but their purpose too. Beyond just greening the tech we have, we need to think about its wider impact and who it is serving.
Highlights from the booth & hallway
At the booth, we spent the day introducing attendees to climate tech communities and resources, and quizzing them on digital sustainability. We challenged their existing knowledge on carbon emissions from digital services, e-waste, and data center resource use. We were excited to see how receptive participants were to the new information, sharing in their shock and intrigue the extent to which our digital lives have scaled at the cost of the environment.
It was also great to share our booth and chat with members of other organisations with similar missions, such as Planet on Stage, Design Declares, and Climate Fresk. And we took particular delight in getting to meet so many fellow CATs in person! It can be disheartening and isolating at times to work on climate action and push for change in our companies, and moments like these show us we’re part of a growing community that is capable of having a profound impact on the industry at large.
Many thanks to our volunteers from the CAT community and special thanks to Michelle Barker, Chris Pointon, Elisa Escapa, and Siddesh Wagle for writing, editing, and publishing this post!
Let us know if you were there by sharing your insights and photos in #local-uk. 💚
Not a member yet? 👉️ Join the CAT community to learn about similar events in the future. Keep an eye out on on Slack (#4-cat-events) or Luma for more upcoming online CAT events and find your #local channel on Slack for future in-person gatherings. And if you’re interested in helping organise CAT meetups in your region, reach out to one of the organisers and become an official CAT volunteer.