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Tech Hub
14 December 2023

A Digital Collage to Become a Sustainable IT Champion

On Wednesday, December 6th, a group of seven members of the Institute explored the environmental, social and geopolitical implications of the production, use and recycling of digital technologies. The Digital Collage (La Fresque du Numérique Responsable) is a science-based participatory workshop. It aims to raise awareness about sustainable IT and guide participants in identifying concrete actions to take in their daily lives to reduce the environmental footprint of digital technologies.

At its core, sustainable IT seeks to reduce the ecological footprint of digital technologies, which encompasses not only direct energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of data centers and network infrastructure, but also the broader lifecycle impacts including manufacturing, usage, and disposal of hardware. This field extends beyond mere energy efficiency to encompass a holistic approach that includes sustainable sourcing of materials, promoting longevity and recyclability of devices, and the development of algorithms and software that are resource-efficient. Moreover, sustainable IT also explores the role of digital technologies in enabling broader societal sustainability goals, such as through the optimization of energy grids, enhancing the efficiency of transportation systems, and facilitating smart urban planning.

This evolving domain challenges traditional paradigms in IT development and deployment, urging the industry to balance technological advancement with environmental responsibility, and aligning it with the broader objectives of sustainable development. For more information on sustainable IT and what we do at the Institute to reduce the environmental footprint of digital technologies, check out our podcast "What Matters Today".

This "serious game" consists of 4 main parts:

  1. Comprehension – Participants identify and draw links between the cards of the game to build a real “Collage”.

  2. Creativity - Participants illustrate their interpretation, learn key messages, then choose a title, which helps to embrace the content and creates a team spirit.

  3. Debrief / Review - Participants presents their Collage, chosen title, key messages and decoration to the others and then receive feedback from the facilitator who also recaps the key messages.

  4. Action! - Participants discover the action cards, and discuss amongst themselves the ones that are most relevant to retain.

You can see the result of this workshop on this page below and printed at the HR department and at the Tech Hub. We will organize another Digital Collage workshop in the Spring.