Things you could ask if meeting policy makers, if you wanted a greener internet
Use the policy already there
In the UK at least, recognise there is already policy here, and make sure it’s followed. DEFRA a UK, government department has outlined this below. Lots of it is very sensible, and with seems like a fairly uncontroversial goal:
A resilient digital and technology ecosystem, fully utilised by digital citizens, delivering a net gain for the environment and society through reduced impacts and measurable benefits
from the Greening Government report
Underlying all activities and actions within this strategy are a set of reasonable sounding sustainability principles:
- minimizing waste and embracing circular economy concepts
- using resources more sustainably and efficiently
- social, Legal and Ethical ICT
- mitigating and adapting to climate change and other supply chain risks
- life Cycle Analysis and Whole Life Costing
- seeking Innovation opportunities
You can see it here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greening-government-sustainable-technology-strategy-2020
Adopt specific, existing guidelines frameworks for procurement
More than two thirds of gov’s own environmental impact comes form it's supply chain, and in UK at least we spend 300bn BGP each year on procurement. For gov IT, it typically makes sense to buy lots of services rather than build them internally, so having clear guidelines for this would help. Thankfully these exist too in the form of OECD's Green procurement guidelines, and would help create a market for greener services that benefit the entire sector.
Make it easier to transparently source renewable power for ICT services, and mandate it in contracts
Finally, because we don't tend to manufacture so many electronics in the UK anymore, one of the larger impacts would be to
- mandate UK ICT services use renewable power. Every large provider has an option for this now - it's totally inline with government's own policies, and is often cheaper than fossil fuel options now.
- make it easier to support a shift from fossil fuels, by making it easier to source renewable power in the first place - remove the policy that makes it so difficult to deploy renewables in the UK right now.
Publish stats on which departments have moved to renewable power for their ICT services
This is referred to already, but given that most public services would need to have some kind of manifest of the tools and services they use to store data, as part of following GDPR anyway - reporting on which of these run on renewable power would be not be an unreasaonble ask.