Green Digital Charter
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This year, digital was right on top of the agenda of this EU Sustainable Energy Week: from large-scale smart city projects to citizen-oriented digital services and apps, ICT assume an essential role in maximising energy consumption in our lives.
The Green Digital Charter welcomed participants at its stand of the Networking Village on Thursday 22 June morning (09:00 – 12:30, Résidence Palace). Signed by 52 European cities, the Charter sets energy efficiency as top priority for signatories.
Digital solutions to save energy
GDC signatories are compiling and implementing local and digital strategies to make the most efficient use of ICTs to improve the economic, social and environment wellbeing of their citizens.
This event was the occasion to discover policies and projects implemented by GDC signatory cities in the area of energy efficiency.
- Read our annual collections of case-studies
- Lisbon and Rijeka awarded for their approach to energy management (read more)
Environmentally-sound IT and digital applications
Already today, carbon directly emitted by the ICT sector (datacentres and telecommunication networks) reaches 2% and is expected to double by 2020. Among the priorities of the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) is the establishment of a common methodological framework for the measurement of the energy intensity and carbon emissions arising from the production, transport and selling processes of ICT goods, services and networks.
On Wednesday (14:00 – 15:30), DG CONNECT organised a session on ‘nearly zero-emission’ datacentres, testifying of the Commission’s commitment to foster environmental-sound network infrastructures able to sustain the Digital Single Market (DSM). Laura Baracchi (from Trust-IT) presented the ICTFOOTPRINT.eu project and the self-assessment tool developed to raise awareness on the carbon footprint of digital service (SAT-S).
(Smart) cities are important consumers of digital goods and services, and sometimes even owners of IT infrastructures.Leading by example is one of the GDC signatories’ commitments. Indeed, cities can ensure the measurement, transparency and visibility of each city’s use of ICT infrastructure and digital services in terms of carbon footprint.
EUSEW Networking Village 7
GDC interactive board also approached the rising issue of energy consumption of ICT devices.
Participants were given the opportunity to self-assess the carbon footprint generated by ICT equipments they own. This small game enabled us to present projects, initiatives and alternative existing in European cities to foster a market for green, energy-efficient and environmental-sound ICT and digital solutions. The game sparked some interesting discussions with stakeholders present in the Networking Village.
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