Rendre Internet plus éco-responsable, c’est prendre en compte l’impact environnemental des sites et applications mobiles dès leur conception. Expert en numérique responsable chez Greenspector - une entreprise qui aide les organisations à réduire l’impact environnemental de leurs sites et applications -, Laurent Devernay dresse un panorama des bonnes pratiques pour rendre nos sites et applications plus responsables.
The environmental impact of websites and mobile apps is far from neutral. This environmental footprint could be greatly reduced by implementing simple measures, as Laurent Devernay explains to us.
How do you measure the carbon footprint of a website or mobile app?
Laurent Devernay: "Our approach at Greenspector is unique because it considers greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, and space occupation, going beyond the usual CO2 equivalent indicator. We monitor user journeys on real devices and measure the volume of data exchanged, number of requests sent to the server, and energy consumed by the smartphone battery, among other things.
It's worth remembering that measuring the environmental impact of a site or app is complex because they are intangible services and there isn’t a standard as such. Progress is being made, however, as the W3C (web standards consortium) has a working group looking at it. Several professional benchmarks now exist and Greenspector has contributed to a recent AFNOR guideline."
"Digital impact in figures"
Digital technology represents approximately 3.8% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Added to this is the depletion of raw materials (particularly precious metal and mineral mining to manufacture devices), water consumption, and floor space occupation. Globally, the number of web users has more than doubled since 2010, and by 2025, there could be 50 billion connected objects (compared to 20 billion today). According to Laurent Devernay, "Devices account for most of the digital sector’s environmental impacts mainly through their manufacturing phases. They should therefore be kept for as long as possible. But too often they are replaced because the software becomes too hardware intensive. It is therefore necessary to improve software efficiency, through an eco-design approach."
What is an eco-designed website?
L.D.: "We refer to an eco-designed digital service more than an eco-designed site. It starts from the user need (to search the web, contact an advisor, order a product, etc.). The aim is to provide the least impactful response possible, whether that means removing functionality (to keep only what is necessary) or defining a more efficient user journey (to optimize what remains). Sometimes this means replacing a website or a mobile application with an SMS. Once the functionality is defined, the technical efficiency can be optimized, both on the front-end (user interface) and back-end (data centers). The aim is to improve the service’s accessibility and compatibility with older devices and degraded connections. By combining rationalized functionality and technical efficiency, you can avoid forcing users to upgrade their devices too often."
Comment mesurez-vous l'empreinte carbone d'un site ou d'une application mobile ?
L.D. : « On peut déjà partir du principe de faire le nécessaire pour optimiser l’efficience environnementale du service proposé. Pour cela, les professionnels de la performance web ont déjà largement documenté les bonnes pratiques. Mais en réalité, c’est la question de la sobriété qui est la plus difficile à trancher. Proposer un site en pur HTML avec seulement du texte n’est pas toujours la solution pour rendre service à l’utilisateur... On va alors chercher à produire du contenu simple, de qualité et qui va directement à l’essentiel, en évitant les images purement décoratives, en limitant les vidéos, etc.
Dans l'ordre, on va éliminer les fonctionnalités superflues (en se recentrant sur le besoin utilisateur), limiter les éléments affichés (pas besoin d'avoir un fil d'actualités contenant des dizaines d'éléments). Ensuite, on pourra s'interroger sur l'efficience de ce qui reste (un carrousel, par exemple, est rarement la meilleure façon de présenter du contenu, pour l'accessibilité comme pour la sobriété). Lorsqu’un site se concentre sur ce vers quoi il veut guider l’internaute, il peut être à la fois sobre et attractif. »
Reducing the impact of Orange sites
To limit emissions from our internal (intranets) and external sites (such as orange.com), we work with Greenspector to optimize elements such as the video player, image display, and user journeys. By combining this with rationalizing functionality and content on our sites, we’ve been able to halve the volume of data transmitted.
We also used an eco-design approach to publish the latest Orange Integrated Annual Report, reducing its carbon impact by 55% compared to the previous edition.
Finally, our employees regularly discuss best practices in terms of digital efficiency via numerous Group initiatives, dedicated events, and our internal social network.