how to decrease the environmental impact of your app
DESCRIPTION
How to decrease the environmental impact of your appAMEE FOWA 2008TRANSCRIPT
How to decrease the environmental impact of your <foo>
The number of PCsin use around the world has exceeded 1 billion and will double by 2014
Gartner
recycling could save 11 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of PC waste
180m “retired” ... 35m straight to landfill
Be SustainableOr
Be Landfill
9 years left in the UK
*landfill
*landfill
Who's looking after our
binary dust?
Isn't the web just digital landfill?
"Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your
Telecomputer Set And Go Out And Do
Something Less Boring Instead?"
Gavin Starks
VisionAggregate all the energy data on Earth
- all the environmental emissions factors- all the methodologies and standards- all the consumption data
WhyWe need to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% - starting yesterday
To avoid mass-extinction events*
We could wait for “new tech” or “clean tech” or “legislation” (and legislation is coming)
* yes, really
Ref: http://www.wattzon.org/
Ref: http://www.wattzon.org/
Ref: http://www.wattzon.org/
how much could we save NOW by just being better?
Server Footprint1U dual-socket cluster node ~300 watts + aircon = 600W = 5000kwh
Per server: 2,500 kgCO2/annum (and costs £500 per annum) CPUs : Xeon: 50 – 150W, AMD: 55 – 105W, Sunfire: 72W
Target should be: 1-10W (e.g 6-8W Linutop server)
Information Footprint> 50% of organisations don't have decent email retention policies*
> 40% have no document classification policy*
“storage is cheap” - more pleaseclouds don't actually help here!
Targets: only store what we need. Throw data away. Store on the least energy-intensive device
*source: EMC
Why are you building an app?
fun?throwing sheep?making money?changing the world?saving the Earth?
Good Thingsdon't build that thing – build that other thing that's more useful
switch it off, or get it to switch other things off
use virtual servers/ clouds (scale dynamically with load)optimise, refactor, be smarter, be elegant, less brute force, monitor
slow cook computing
todowrite energy efficient code
watch Age of Stupid, Wall+E and Idiocracy
more function, less form
Yet Another Reason to KILL ALL FLASH?
Good Thingschange procurement cycles (watch Government)
“clean energy” data centres
“just in time” provisioning
low-level languages (machine code in the cloud?)
todomake your app self-aware of its energy. disclose it.
make your app's users self-aware of the app's consumption
make your users self-aware of their own consumption
Good Thingstidy up
build bots that willhoover up our digital detritus 10110101010101010100111
Good Thingsmake things that encourage less use
make things that encourage low-carbon/low-energy behaviour
encourage smarter movement (e.g. dopplr)video conferencing – change habitsplease could we have a better Webex? a more efficient Second Life?(A Second Life citizen has the same foot print as the average Brazillian)
Good Thingsgive everything an energy identity
build “smart-grid” behaviour into everything
build what comes next
share it :: be disruptive :: rethink it from the ground up
examples
opt-in sharingHome EnergyConsumption
BuildingCertificate
you(home footprint)
BuildingAssessor
Smart Meter
PowerCompany
AMEE enables portability around the user's data.
AMEE is the neutral “3rd place” that allows data to be passed up, down, and across, the supply chain.
AMEE anonymises the data it holds to maintain privacy.
opt-in sharing
Mode oftransport
Locativecommunity
you(travel footprint)
Travel Service (dopplr.com)
Mobilephone
Mobile service(FireEagle)
In this example, a GPS-enabled mobile phone can derive the mode of transport.
Using AMEE as the trusted 3rd party, it could pass that information to dopplr.com, a social network based around travel.
Resolution
Make energy YOUR performance metric
Shut down power stationsRe-invent the (power) grid(s)Reduce all travel
Measure and visualise all of it
Resolution
we don't just need change
we need systematic redesign of the future
ps.bring your own data: http://wiki.amee.cc
Thankshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/point_and_click/115258719/apologies to http://www.napster.comthanks to dopplr, Defra and you