What role does efficiency play?

[suchona.kani.z]

The usage behavior of digital technologies has an impact on sustainability, as this blog post shows. However, responsible use of technology includes not only users, but above all manufacturers and operators. It is not only consumers who expect responsible treatment of our environment. Investors, employees and business partners are also making it increasingly clear that a coherent sustainability strategy is unavoidable for companies. They understand that it is no longer just about protecting the environment as an end in itself, but about preserving a future basis for life and business. Regulation and in particular the new EU taxonomy and the CSRD are also seen as drivers of digital sustainability , because now those responsible are realizing for the first time how great the influence of IT on the CO2 footprint really is.

In discussions, it is noticeable that particularly efficient software - efficiency here as the ratio of power consumption to computing power - is often seen as a solution for digital sustainability. In the area of ​​mobile systems and in the course of search engine optimization, however, low-threshold optimizations have often already been implemented. And in hardware ukraine consumer email list​ development, we are decades ahead anyway, as hardware has historically been trimmed much more for efficiency. It is therefore important to weigh up whether the available capacity should be invested in increasing efficiency or whether other approaches, such as carbon awareness - more on this below - promise a greater increase in sustainability.

Small, complex optimizations are worthwhile where software components are frequently used, for example in popular open source software. Ultimately, it is always important to weigh up the efficiency of developers against the efficiency of machines. A few common tips for more efficient software are:

Optimized cache validity period
Delivery of images in the correct resolution
Use system fonts instead of external fonts
Server-side rendering of content
The points mentioned are just a small selection of possible improvements. You can get a deeper insight into this in this blog post .