Digital Emissions

🌍Every year, the world generates over 62 million tonnes of electronic waste, more than the weight of the Great Wall of China.

However, a new and accelerating driver behind this mountain of discarded tech is .

As AI models grow larger, they demand massive compute power, and that means thousands of servers and GPUs running at full tilt. These aren’t built to last decades; they’re replaced in rapid refresh cycles, often discarded not because they’re broken, but because they’re outdated.

The result? A new wave of eWaste is quietly building up behind the sleek façade of the AI revolution.

On this International eWaste Day, it’s worth asking:
👉 How can we make AI not just smarter, but more sustainable?
👉 Can data centers be designed for circularity >> reusing, repurposing, and recycling components rather than discarding them?

Because innovation shouldn’t come at the cost of the planet. 🌱


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Sustainable IT continues to be a strong emerging contender in a digital age characterized by the rapid rise of AI. Integrating sustainable IT practices aligns not only with global environmental and social responsibility goals but also with strategic business objectives, enhancing efficiency, compliance, reputation, and long-term viability.

Digital Sustainability is one of the key themes for due to its rising impact on the planet (e.g. eWaste, exploding data growth, the exponential increase of energy demand, AI’s thirst for computing, and unchecked crypto damage, among others). Demand for our tomorrow.

Come see us this Friday, Dec 1st, at the Climate and Sustainability Expo hosted by . We’re excited to connect with the students & alumni to discuss opportunities in . Register @ https://bit.ly/3Lmg5h2.

Register Now: Salata Institute Climate and Sustainability Career Expo - The Salata Institute Are you a Harvard student or alumni interested in a career in climate and sustainability? Or an employer interested in reaching Harvard University students with career opportunities? The Salata Institute Climate and Sustainability Expo is a new collaborative effort across Harvard schools to connect....

As we celebrate Digital Inclusion Week, it’s important to remember that everyone deserves the opportunity to use technology to live, learn, work, and thrive. Bridging the digital divide through elevating , , and helps achieve an for all. 

Simple shifts in your digital behavior can go a long way on this .

                

The digital divide has become the new face of gender inequality, compounded by the pushback against women and girls that we see in parts of the world today. On International Women’s Day, we are reminded of the work still to be done to advance the gender equality agenda in a digital age.      

A rough estimate of the carbon footprint of ChatGPT incorporating its training cycle, usage, and total life cycle carbon footprint of the model.

https://rb.gy/rbknmz

Digital infrastructure has significant environmental impact. To prevent this supercomputer from melting down, about 6K gallons of water per minute flow through the system and across the computer’s 9K nodes. https://rb.gy/nhugbd

Today Bloomberg reported that 2022 was the first year in which more debt capital was raised for green projects than for the fossil fuel industry. Around USD 580 bn were used for the financing of renewable energy and other green projects.

Any goals for the new year?

Automated application management could cut global power consumption by 40%.

https://rb.gy/2ywwtp