Lessons from Green IO London 2024

Hello responsible technologist!
Let’s take a moment to welcome the 260+! new readers from the Green IO London conference. In case of a mistake, please unsubscribe here, but if you want to try out our newsletter, then please read on! (you can always unsubscribe at the end of it).

Jumping straight in to the main takeaways of the 2nd edition of the Green IO London conference, here are 3 things from the talks that blew my mind:

• When we click play on Netflix, we can go through 40+ devices;
• The air conditioning used to keep machines cool is 30-40% of total emissions;
• A customer moving from an old-fashioned bare-metal datacenter in Scotland to AWS in Dublin actually increased spend and emissions by 460%. (Editor’s note - I use this example in almost all my public speaking).

For me, Green IO London 2024 truly delivered one of its core objectives in providing an open, non-judgemental platform for responsible technologists to come together. And this year’s conference also brought home to me the pertinence of Chris Adams’ mantra: “Connect not collect”. The vast array of topics and issues discussed genuinely reflected the diverse audience, yet curiously there was much common ground. Here are my top 6 connections that I found between talks, despite people coming from different backgrounds. And yes, some of them are quite surprising.

First, we must look under the hood, challenge everything and not just take things at face value, which was loudly advocated by Mark Butcher, Ben Schwartz and Tereze Gaile. Second, regulation is necessary, but it’s not a silver bullet, as each country or state has their own particular view and context, as Alexander Dawson highlighted. And it comes with delays in delivering metrics which now need to be validated by the legal department - thanks Paull Young for raising this point. Third, talking metrics again, granularity is important, and new studies and updated tools are really helping, as shown by Chris Adams, Ben Schwarz, Paull Young plus Philip Treleaven & Tatiana Collins. But we can’t afford to lose the bigger picture because of metrics and wait ages for the perfect one, as stated both by Aiste Rugeviciute and Amael Parreaux-Ey. Fourth, Design is central, though there are 50 shades of gray, and trade-offs will have to be accepted, as illustrated in their own way by Thorsten Jonas, Ben Schwartz, Julie Dennis and Andri Johnston. Fifth, no more sticking our heads in the sand either, as we have to admit that we have a serious AI problem (no way!), with issues of big tech control, equity of use, plus the obvious ethical and environmental dimensions as highlighted by Ishmael Burdeau, Philip Treleaven & Tatiana Collins and our panelists Anne Curie, Chris Adams, Maxime Fazilleau and Sandra Pallier.

Finally, all of the above goes to show that we need more than ever to onboard absolutely everyone, no matter the job title. And to make sure everyone is on the same page, let’s use the right objectives, as Mark Butcher, Amael, and Daryl Elfield & Jérémie Veg & Magali Saul all stated at some point: “it’s not my wallet but it’s my planet”. Environmental incentives beat financial ones across all teams and organizations all the time.

I encourage you to draw your own conclusions and find new connections while browsing the presentation slides from (almost) all speakers on the Green IO London 2024 agenda.

Yet, as the 2024 London conference came to close, it was never more clear that, by bringing together technologists from all walks of life, new light can be shed on existing challenges. And at each conference, we at Green IO learn a little more of how to bring value to all those attending. So here are our pledges for Paris 2024 and upcoming 2025 events:   

• Continue to provide a safe and diplomatic place for responsible technologists and NGOs involved in the field to learn and exchange;
• Promote further a cross-disciplinary approach to explore multiple angles of analysis (practitioners, experts, academics…) for each different issue (low-carbon cloud ops, green software, sustainable design, AI, etc.) ;
• Enjoy being with our kind, and be kind to our kind too, recognizing the unique value that each person can bring to the table. If we help and cooperate with each other, it makes it so much easier to deliver the change needed;
• Have as much fun attending as volunteering!

So an enormous thank you to all those who contributed to the 2024 London conference in any way - volunteers, speakers, attendees, sponsors - and I know I can rely on you for future events. So, see you next time, be it Paris, Singapore, NY, Munich or London, and of course, don’t forget to bring a colleague or two with you!

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