The recent weather events across New Zealand serve as a stark reminder that climate change is upon us.

This summer has bought home that we can’t just continue to live and work as we are and hope that life will stay the same. The Auckland flooding event along with Cyclone Gabrielle have been life-changing events for many kiwis and it’s going to take major changes to how our cities are planned, and where houses are built, to avoid the devastating damage to homes and businesses in the future. Climate change means more extreme weather events, more frequently, so working together to find solutions must be a priority for all of us.  

On that note, did you know that global emissions for the digital and technology industry are on a par with the aviation industry pre-Covid? Whilst digital technology has revolutionized the way we live and work, it comes at a cost to the environment.  

So where do the carbon emissions in the digital industry come from?  

Data centres!  

Digital infrastructure, and specifically data centres, are growing rapidly, which means that more power is needed to run these data centres, heightening their impact on the environment for greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, power sustainability and water sustainability. This is why digital infrastructure forms a core part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. 1

Production of digital data is increasing fast – in 2022, the world was forecast to generate 97 zettabytes (that is: 97 trillion gigabytes) of data. By 2025, it could almost double to 181 zettabytes. 2  

Data Centres require cooling: Specialised computing equipment designed to handle large amounts of data every second can put out large amounts of heat. Overheating can be very damaging to server equipment, and if any crashes occur and the equipment is damaged and needs to be repaired or replaced, this can cause significant delays for businesses who need to access their data. 3

The running of data centres is hugely carbon intensive so it’s critical we all start moving to data centres powered by renewable energy.  

Digital decarbonization and dark data…  

One of the big challenges with digital decarbonisation is the amount of dark data organisations create and store.  

Gartner has defined dark data as “the information assets organizations collect, process, and store during regular business activities, but generally fail to use for other purposes.” 4

Examples of dark data include:  

  • Log files from servers, applications, network devices, etc.
  • Geolocation data
  • Emails and attachments
  • Data that belongs to former employees
  • Spreadsheets and presentations
  • Financial statements
  • Footage from CCTV cameras
  • Customer call records, etc.

Anecdotally, around 40-50% of an organisation’s data could be dark data, meaning energy is being used to store data the organization didn’t even know it had!  

Deleting unneeded dark data can be an easy ESG win for your business, although it’s recommended to use your IT team in conjunction with your compliance team and key stakeholders to ensure this is done properly. 5

The New Zealand Digital Advertising Landscape…  

Many New Zealand businesses are now getting to grips with sustainability practices, and ensuring they are kept accountable through their public facing ESG goals. However, digital sustainability is often low down the priority list, but can have a big impact.  

The good news for your business is that reducing digital carbon emissions is relatively easy to do, and a great starting point for many businesses.  

Here are our top tips to help reduce energy / carbon in your digital ads:  

  1. Audit the local market for digital partners offering green solutions / using sustainable technologies.  
  2. Ask your agencies to use sustainable digital providers.  
  3. Ask for energy reporting as part of your digital ad campaigns.  

The time for talk is over. We need action and the digital ad industry in Aotearoa New Zealand must play its part. There are low energy digital ad solutions live in the New Zealand market, and forward-thinking brands that are fully committed to being part of the change are making the most of these new opportunities.  

Don’t get left behind! If you’re keen to explore lower energy digital ad solutions, get in touch with Sense Data today: sarah@sensedata.co.nz / www.sensedata.co.nz 

Sources:  

  1. How Data Centers Impact the Environment
    Mary Zhang via Dgtl Infra
  2. ‘Dark data’ is killing the planet – we need digital decarbonisation
    Tom Jackson & Ian R. Hodgkinson via The Conversation
  3. Why do data centers need cooling?
    USystems 
  4. What is Dark Data and How to Find it
    Terry Mann via Lepide 
  5. What Is Dark Data? How To Manage And Protect It
    Donnelley Financial Solutions
  6. THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development
    United Nations