“The IT and digital services of the Agglo de La Rochelle, the City and its 40 schools emit 680 tons of CO2 per year. This corresponds to 100 years of individual heating or the annual carbon footprint of 70 Rochelais”, summarizes Marie Nédellec, community advisor in charge of digital transformation. The elected official presented this Wednesday the results of a digital carbon balance sheet ordered by these two La Rochelle communities.
Committed to a “zero carbon” territory project by 2040, they intend to use all the levers at their disposal to achieve this. Computers and computer servers, telephones and everyday uses… the impact of digital technology on the environment remains underestimated. “But we cannot ask our inhabitants to change their behavior without doing it ourselves”, pleads Marie Nédellec.
A precise inventory of the equipment was thus carried out then the year 2020 chosen as a reference to establish a diagnosis. “We realized that the same agent might sometimes have three screens, a material whose manufacture generates more CO2 than that of a computer”, underlines the elected official. First lesson: 54% of the digital carbon footprint comes from the manufacture of equipment and 46% from their use. Second lesson: the equipment deployed in schools in La Rochelle weighs heavily in the balance – 38% on the scale of the City, 20% on the scale of the Agglo. The two communities have therefore decided to extend their use from 5 to 6 years.
These materials will then be repackaged and offered, in particular to students. Smartphones will be oriented towards vulnerable audiences through social centers. Local authorities also plan to install heat recovery systems, as is already the case in one of their data centers. This energy might help heat public facilities, explains Marie Nédellec. Raising public awareness, vigilance over the levels of service provider commitment, adjustment of the purchasing policy and commitment to a green energy supplier: other avenues and actions are currently being studied and might lead to new measures, assures Marie Nédellec.
