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Best of LinkedIn: Sustainability & Green ICT CW 42/ 43 · Best of LinkedIn: Digital Transformation & Tech

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This episode is provided by Thomas Allgeier and Freanus, based on the most relevant LinkedIn posts about sustainability and green ICT in CW-四ty-two and forty-three.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Freanus supports ICT enterprises with market and competitive intelligence, decoding green software developments, benchmarking emerging standards, tracking regulatory shifts, and analyzing competitor strategies.
• 0:22
  Speaker 0: Welcome to the deep dive.
• 0:25
  Speaker 0: If you're looking to get up to speed on green ICT trends, you know, without getting lost in all the noise, you're definitely in the right place.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we've sifted through LinkedIn for the past couple of weeks, CW-Forty-Two and Forty-Three, really focusing on that tricky intersection of AI infrastructure and green software.
• 0:42
  Speaker 0: Our goal today is simple.
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  Speaker 0: Cut through that noise, give you the key insights, and honestly, the big story we pulled out is pretty clear.
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  Speaker 0: It
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  Speaker 1: really is.
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  Speaker 1: The whole industry seems to be shifting.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: It's less about whether to be sustainable and much more about how to actually do it, execution.
• 0:56
  Speaker 0: Exactly.
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  Speaker 0: But here's the kicker.
• 0:57
  Speaker 0: The scale of innovation, such with AI, it's huge.
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  Speaker 0: And the cost, you know, energy resources, it's becoming almost impossible to ignore.
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  Speaker 1: It feels like a real turning point.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Sustainability isn't just a report anymore.
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  Speaker 1: It's becoming a core, technical, even financial constraint.
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  Speaker 1: It dictates who can actually scale.
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  Speaker 0: Which brings us straight into the first big theme that was all over the place, this AI energy paradox.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Right, the paradox.
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  Speaker 1: Because AI needs so much power.
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  Speaker 0: Yeah, you look at these large language models, generative AI, the energy cost is the first thing everyone mentions.
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  Speaker 1: We saw Nate Nassauant put it really well.
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  Speaker 1: He said the cloud is basically running out of breath.
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  Speaker 0: That's a great way to phrase it.
• 1:36
  Speaker 0: Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and energy availability.
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  Speaker 1: That's now shaping innovation speed.
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  Speaker 1: It's not just about having the best algorithm anymore.
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  Speaker 0: And the scale involved is just staggering.
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  Speaker 0: Eva Cello pointed out Bite Dance, you know, TikTok's parent company.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: What about them?
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  Speaker 0: They're data center plans, expanding from three hundred megawatts up to nine hundred megawatts in places like Brazil.
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  Speaker 0: I mean, think about that.
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  Speaker 1: Nine hundred megawatts.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 0: At that scale, power, water, they stop being just line items on a bill.
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  Speaker 0: They become the scarce resource.
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  Speaker 1: And that scale really throws up this awkward question, doesn't it?
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  Speaker 1: Julio C. Serrano brought it up.
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  Speaker 1: What's question
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  Speaker 0: was that?
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Well, AI is supposed to help save the energy sector, right?
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Optimize grids, smart management, all that stuff.
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  Speaker 0: That's the promise, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But is the AI industry itself creating an even bigger energy problem with its own consumption?
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  Speaker 1: That's
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  Speaker 0: the core tension.
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  Speaker 0: And the numbers, frankly... They are a bit alarming.
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  Speaker 0: We know AI training and running these models drives huge energy spikes.
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  Speaker 1: Like how much?
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  Speaker 0: Well, Microsoft's CO-II emissions up nearly thirty percent since twenty twenty.
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  Speaker 0: Google's almost fifty percent higher than twenty nineteen.
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  Speaker 0: Fifty
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  Speaker 1: percent.
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  Speaker 1: That's that's massive.
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  Speaker 1: That's basically the cost of this gen AI race we're seeing.
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  Speaker 1: It
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  Speaker 0: feels pretty unsustainable, doesn't it?
• 2:53
  Speaker 0: Yeah.
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  Speaker 0: If the big players are seeing increases like that, they must be pouring money into efficiency, right?
• 2:58
  Speaker 0: Otherwise, the whole model just breaks.
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  Speaker 1: You'd think so.
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  Speaker 0: They are.
• 3:01
  Speaker 0: but it's a constant battle.
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  Speaker 0: Kevin Collins mentioned that AI, well, the way it's often done now, is incredibly wasteful.
• 3:07
  Speaker 0: Energy, water, even capital burn.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: So it's inefficient across the board.
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  Speaker 0: But that financial pressure, it's forcing what people are calling green AI.
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  Speaker 0: We're hearing about scientists achieving like, forty x to sixty x efficiency gains.
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  Speaker 0: Forty
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  Speaker 1: to sixty times.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, that's significant.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 0: And it's not just about being eco-friendly, it's really about financial survival.
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  Speaker 0: It's becoming a competitive need.
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  Speaker 0: And
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  Speaker 1: that efficiency focus, it's getting really granular right down into the models themselves.
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  Speaker 1: Mart Arts gave a great explanation of tokens.
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  Speaker 0: Ah yes, tokens.
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  Speaker 0: Super important.
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  Speaker 0: Explain
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  Speaker 1: those a bit.
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  Speaker 0: So, think of tokens as the basic building blocks of language for the AI.
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  Speaker 0: Like smart chunks it processes.
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  Speaker 0: Every single token needs energy to be processed.
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  Speaker 0: Okay, makes sense.
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  Speaker 0: So tracking energy per token, that becomes the key metric for efficiency inside the AI stack.
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  Speaker 0: Optimize how you handle tokens, the model architecture, the hardware, and you cut costs and environmental impact.
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  Speaker 0: It directly links code to the power
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  Speaker 1: bill.
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  Speaker 1: That linkage is critical.
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  Speaker 1: But, you know, this drive for efficiency, you'd expect it to lead to more transparency.
• 4:12
  Speaker 0: You would, wouldn't you?
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  Speaker 0: But that seems to be a speaking point.
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  Speaker 0: Noah Edwards pointed out a pretty big gap in accountability.
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  Speaker 0: How so?
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  Speaker 1: Well, You've got companies like Anthropic, Google DeepMind.
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  Speaker 1: They're making commitments, partnering with low-carbon data centers, publishing reports.
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  Speaker 0: OK, some are stepping up.
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  Speaker 1: But then you have OpenAI, you know, ChatGPT, the one everyone knows.
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  Speaker 1: And they don't publicly share their environmental footprint.
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  Speaker 0: Really?
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  Speaker 0: That seems inconsistent.
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  Speaker 0: It's
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  Speaker 1: a major point of friction.
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  Speaker 1: And that lag of transparency, it immediately creates risk.
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  Speaker 1: Holly Alpine highlighted a specific example.
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  Speaker 0: What was that?
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  Speaker 1: A shareholder proposal, proposal ten.
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  Speaker 1: Demanding Microsoft disclose the climate and financial risks of its AI tools being used in oil and gas.
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  Speaker 0: Ah, so.
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  Speaker 0: Investors are now connecting the dots, linking sustainability claims or lack theorem directly to financial risk.
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  Speaker 1: Precisely.
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  Speaker 1: So the takeaway here is, yeah, efficiency gains are happening, they're impressive even, but the sheer scale of AI growth might be outpacing them right now.
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  Speaker 0: Which naturally leads to the next big question.
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  Speaker 0: Where do we physically put all this demand?
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  Speaker 1: Perfect segue.
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  Speaker 1: Because the physical infrastructure, the data centers are under a huge spotlight, especially around resources that aren't just carbon.
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  Speaker 1: We're seeing this global demand for more realistic reporting, aren't we?
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  Speaker 0: Definitely.
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  Speaker 0: Nino DuPlan mentioned Dr.
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  Speaker 0: Kevin Gretch urging sustainability reports to properly account for digital water and energy footprints.
• 5:39
  Speaker 0: Digital
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  Speaker 1: water, I like that term.
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  Speaker 0: Yeah, treating these hidden impacts, you know, with the same seriousness as we treat, say, heavy industry emissions.
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  Speaker 0: And the
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  Speaker 1: water numbers themselves are just mind-boggling.
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  Speaker 1: Doren Soren-Gigler cited a figure.
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  Speaker 1: Data centers globally.
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  Speaker 1: using about five hundred and sixty billion liters of water a year.
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  Speaker 1: Five
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  Speaker 0: hundred and sixty billion liters.
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  Speaker 0: It's almost impossible to picture.
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  Speaker 0: That's like what?
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  Speaker 0: Two hundred and twenty-four thousand Olympic swimming pools?
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  Speaker 1: Every year.
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  Speaker 1: Every year.
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  Speaker 0: And when consumption gets that high, it's not just the utility costs anymore.
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  Speaker 0: It can become a real community issue.
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  Speaker 1: Like the example Shristi Drollier raised about India's biggest data center project.
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  Speaker 0: Exactly.
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  Speaker 0: By twenty thirty, that one project could be using over three hundred and fifty billion liters annually.
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  Speaker 1: That's incredible.
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  Speaker 0: In areas where water is already scarce.
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  Speaker 0: This demands total transparency on their cooling tech.
• 6:27
  Speaker 0: And frankly, obligations for water replenishment.
• 6:30
  Speaker 0: You can't just drain the local resources.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: No, absolutely not.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: And this resource pressure, it explains what Ash Allen termed the clean energy land grab.
• 6:38
  Speaker 0: Ah, yes.
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  Speaker 0: Companies realizing securing clean power isn't optional anymore.
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  Speaker 0: It's fundamental infrastructure for the AI age.
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  Speaker 1: Like Meta.
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  Speaker 1: Yep,
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  Speaker 0: Meta.
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  Speaker 0: Locking down huge amounts of renewables, seven hundred ninety-one megawatts of clean energy.
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  Speaker 0: They're treating clean power sourcing as a competitive edge.
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  Speaker 1: And it's not just companies, right?
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  Speaker 1: Nations are doing it too.
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  Speaker 1: For sure.
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  Speaker 0: NASA or Albuci noted the UAE's massive six billion dollar plan.
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  Speaker 0: They want to power their whole AI and data center ecosystem with one gigawatt of renewable energy.
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  Speaker 1: So securing clean energy is the new battlefield.
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  Speaker 0: Pretty much.
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  Speaker 0: But in the meantime, while we build out renewables, we also saw discussion around bridging tech like carbon capture.
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  Speaker 0: Himanshu Gaur had some interesting examples.
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  Speaker 0: Go on.
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  Speaker 0: Well, Google is backing a carbon capture and storage project in Illinois.
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  Speaker 0: And Microsoft is exploring direct air capture, DAC.
• 7:28
  Speaker 0: DAC.
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  Speaker 0: Yeah, direct air capture.
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  Speaker 0: And they're looking at cleverly using the waste heat from the data center itself to power it, kind of a symbiotic system.
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  Speaker 1: That's clever, using waste heat.
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  Speaker 1: But while new builds grab headlines, we can't forget existing infrastructure.
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  Speaker 1: Thomas M. made that point.
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  Speaker 0: Very important point.
• 7:47
  Speaker 0: Optimizing what we already have.
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  Speaker 0: Smart retrofitting of current data centers offers huge, immediate efficiency wins.
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  Speaker 1: And Liam Papel highlighted circularity too, right?
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  Speaker 1: Using secondhand buildings, focusing on server life cycles.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
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  Speaker 0: This whole idea of integration, of not just building new, but optimizing and reusing.
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  Speaker 0: It's driving new ways of measuring things too.
• 8:08
  Speaker 0: Chad McCarthy introduced this initiative.
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  Speaker 1: The Enlighten Feme one with the ICFN scores.
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  Speaker 1: That's
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  Speaker 0: the one.
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  Speaker 0: Integrated carbon-free energy scores.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me more about that.
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  Speaker 1: What makes ICFN different?
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  Speaker 0: It's a really fundamental shift in thinking.
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  Speaker 0: Traditional metrics.
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  Speaker 0: They look at a data center as just a consumer.
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  Speaker 0: An isolated island drawing power.
• 8:26
  Speaker 0: Okay.
• 8:27
  Speaker 0: ICFN changes that.
• 8:28
  Speaker 0: It formally includes things like heat recovery and the score.
• 8:31
  Speaker 0: It looks at how well the facility integrates with the community's energy system.
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  Speaker 1: So it's not just about what it takes, but what it potentially gives back, like heat for local buildings?
• 8:40
  Speaker 0: Precisely.
• 8:41
  Speaker 0: It reframes the data center from just being a drain on resources to potentially being a productive community asset.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Treating data centers like integrated community assets, I really like that framing.
• 8:54
  Speaker 0: It's a powerful idea.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: And it leads us nicely up the stack, doesn't it, from the physical building to the actual code running on it.
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  Speaker 1: Yep,
• 9:01
  Speaker 0: moving from hardware to software.
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  Speaker 0: And we're seeing real maturity here in standards for sustainable software engineering.
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  Speaker 1: Rafa Nadim defined it pretty clearly.
• 9:11
  Speaker 0: He did.
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  Speaker 0: Basically, minimizing environmental impact through efficient code, smart resource use, green tech, standard engineering principles, really, but with an environmental lens.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: And Ann Curry made that crucial point about co-benefits, which is why this isn't just a nice to have.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Co-benefits,
• 9:27
  Speaker 0: yes.
• 9:28
  Speaker 0: Her point was simple.
• 9:29
  Speaker 0: A greener system is usually just a better system.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: How so?
• 9:32
  Speaker 0: Because building green forces you to be efficient.
• 9:35
  Speaker 0: An efficient code is cheaper to run, it's faster, it's often more resilient, more secure.
• 9:39
  Speaker 0: Inefficiency costs money in every direction.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: So it creates this really compelling business case, not just a moral one.
• 9:46
  Speaker 0: Exactly.
• 9:46
  Speaker 0: Which is why we're seeing it translate into actual procurement rules.
• 9:50
  Speaker 0: Rachel Keilenberg mentioned the Bayer Group ICT software developing practical tools.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Like a schedule of requirements.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: A KPI tool.
• 9:58
  Speaker 0: Tools to structurally include sustainability criteria in public sector software tenders.
• 10:03
  Speaker 0: That forces developers to consider it from day one.
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  Speaker 1: That makes sense.
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  Speaker 1: Embed it in the buying process, but holding vendors accountable.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: We need to look beyond just the electricity used when the software runs, right?
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Oh,
• 10:15
  Speaker 0: absolutely.
• 10:15
  Speaker 0: Anita Shetler tackled that misconception head on.
• 10:19
  Speaker 0: The idea that IT's emissions are minimal.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: That idea only works if you ignore most of the picture.
• 10:25
  Speaker 0: Precisely.
• 10:25
  Speaker 0: If you only look at electricity used during operation, you miss the huge footprint from Scope III missions.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: And Scope III is everything else, basically.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah,
• 10:34
  Speaker 0: the tricky stuff.
• 10:35
  Speaker 0: Hardware manufacturing, building the data centers, even the energy used by the software on our devices, our laptops, our phones.
• 10:42
  Speaker 0: If you ignore Scope III, you're really kidding yourself about the total impact.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: It's good to see the industry starting to respond though.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Charles Humble confirmed AWS is adding scope three data to its carbon footprint
• 10:53
  Speaker 0: tool.
• 10:53
  Speaker 0: That's a big deal.
• 10:55
  Speaker 0: Covering embodied carbon from hardware, data centers, transport.
• 10:59
  Speaker 0: That allows for much more accurate accounting by their customer.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: And that transparency needs to filter down, right, to individual products.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Pablo Jose Gomez or SOSMO stressed transparency as fundamental.
• 11:10
  Speaker 0: He did.
• 11:11
  Speaker 0: Arguing for interoperable systems like a digital product information system, or DPIS, to track sustainability data across the lifecycle.
• 11:20
  Speaker 0: The current landscape is too fragmented.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Okay, so transparency across the supply chain.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: What about the design itself, the user experience?
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Torsten
• 11:27
  Speaker 0: Jonas made a great point about sustainable UX, his argument.
• 11:31
  Speaker 0: User convenience often highs an environmental cost.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Like what?
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Autoplaying videos.
• 11:35
  Speaker 0: Exactly.
• 11:36
  Speaker 0: Or... constantly fetching data we don't need.
• 11:38
  Speaker 0: Designing to reduce that kind of digital waste.
• 11:41
  Speaker 0: It saves costs and gets ahead of potential future regulations.
• 11:44
  Speaker 0: It's just smart design.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Smart design.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: And finally, standards seem to be favoring certain approaches.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Philip Kirsting noted open source has an edge.
• 11:52
  Speaker 0: Yeah, particularly for certifications like the German blower angle, the Blue Angel eco label.
• 11:57
  Speaker 0: Because the code is open, it's just easier to provide the evidence needed to prove it meets the sustainability criteria.
• 12:04
  Speaker 0: Transparency helps verification.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, so wrapping this deep dive up, it's really clear that green ICT isn't just aspirational talk anymore.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: It's about professionalizing the field.
• 12:16
  Speaker 0: We've gone from vague goals to, like, measuring the energy cost of a single software token.
• 12:23
  Speaker 0: Yeah,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to serious discussions about water stewardship and these new metrics like ICP, that C-TECH is part of the community grid.
• 12:30
  Speaker 0: But we also need that dose of realism that James Martin Wilco Bergeroff called for.
• 12:35
  Speaker 0: The projected impact of Gen AI is enormous.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: We can't just rely on blind optimism about progress.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: No.
• 12:41
  Speaker 0: Being realistic about where we actually are is crucial if we want to hit climate targets.
• 12:46
  Speaker 0: The stakes feel incredibly high right now.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: So maybe the thought to leave everyone with comes from Anna Lerner-Nesbitt's observation about how organizations are structured.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: She noted that most companies treat their AI teams as strategic investments, pouring resources into them.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: OK,
• 13:00
  Speaker 0: that makes sense.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: But the sustainability teams, they're often treated purely as a cost
• 13:04
  Speaker 0: center.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: And critically, these two teams, they rarely talk to each other internally.
• 13:09
  Speaker 0: Even though their issues, energy, resources, efficiency are fundamentally linked, that's quite a disconnect.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: So the real question for you listening is probably this.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: What will it take inside your organization?
• 13:22
  Speaker 0: Yeah, what steps can you take to get sustainability seen, not just as a cost to be managed, but as a core strategic investment?
• 13:30
  Speaker 0: An investment in resilience, efficiency, and frankly, future viability.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: A lot to think about there.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this deep dive, new episodes drop every two weeks.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Also, check out our other editions on cloud, digital products and services, artificial intelligence, and ICT and tech insights, health tech, defense tech.
• 13:48
  Speaker 0: Thanks for diving deep with us today.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: And make sure you subscribe so you don't miss our next analysis.