The Path to Sustainable IT: Raising Awareness and Taking Action
In today’s digital world, IT is both a driver of innovation and a significant contributor to environmental challenges. From energy-intensive data centers to outdated website practices, the technology we rely on comes at a cost. At Luminis, we recognize the importance of green computing in building a more sustainable future. We believe that we can have the greatest impact by creating awareness amongst our colleagues and customers. By taking these small steps, we can help our own organization and others implement meaningful changes.
The Importance of Awareness in Green Computing
By increasing awareness within Luminis, we have found practices that helped improve our ecological impact. These insights have not only given us practices that we can implement but have also reinforced our commitment to making sustainability a cornerstone of our IT strategy. While the changes we’ve implemented internally are valuable, their greatest impact lies in enabling us to better support our employees and customers. Creating awareness among them is where we can drive the most significant change, empowering them to adopt sustainable practices and amplifying our collective impact.
Our Journey Toward Sustainability
As part of our commitment to sustainable IT, we’ve taken meaningful steps to align our digital practices with our environmental values. One of the first actions we took was optimizing our website by rebranding the whole website in 2024. This led to the deletion of outdated and unused content, which helped reduce unnecessary use of storage. To ensure that our digital presence reflects our sustainability goals, our website is hosted by a green provider and runs on green energy, as shown by the Green Web Check created by the Green Web Foundation.
You can also visit the Green Web Foundation’s website and check if your website is hosted by a green provider. This information can be a great first step towards more awareness or even a greener change.
Another impactful initiative is the Cloud Cleanup, created by our colleague Steef Burghouts. In this interview, he explains that the Cloud Cleanup aims to map the emissions of an IT landscape and offer suggestions on how to reduce them. Steef also mentions the importance of awareness in sustainability within IT. With more knowledge on our environmental impact, we can move forward in finding and creating solutions.
Next Steps
We hope to take more steps to make our sustainability mission more known by sharing resources, advocating for sustainability and sharing our experiences and learnings.
Despite some successes, our journey is still ongoing. One of our goals is to convert all website images from .jpg format to the more sustainable .webp format, which reduces file sizes without sacrificing quality.
Looking ahead, we’re also exploring the possibility of adjusting our website’s loading times based on carbon intensity, an approach that could further reduce energy use during periods of high carbon emissions. These challenges remind us that sustainability is a continuous process, one that requires creative problem-solving and a commitment to long-term goals.
More on sustainability in IT
We have various resources related to sustainability and green computing. If you’re interested in learning more about these topics, make sure the check out the following resources.
Let’s Create a Greener Future
Sustainability in IT isn’t a destination—it’s a journey. At Luminis, we’re committed to continuing this journey, learning from challenges, and sharing our insights along the way.
We’d love to hear your thoughts or collaborate on sustainable IT solutions. Feel free to reach out to our experts to discuss how we can work together to build a greener digital world.
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