Responsible digital technology: a winning strategy for the companies of tomorrowSubscriber
In a world where digitalization is accelerating, the notion of responsible digital technology is becoming a cornerstone for companies concerned with their social and environmental responsibility.
Adopting a responsible approach to technology is not only an ethical act, it is a profitable long-term strategy. Here’s how and why to better responsibly manage digital at the heart of your business:
The first lever of action concerns the energy consumption of digital infrastructures: servers, work machines and connected devices can represent a significant part of a company’s energy consumption. This consumption can be reduced by energy-efficient technologies, optimization of monitoring or storage and archiving systems. These measures directly reduce the company’s carbon footprint.
The lifespan of IT equipment is often limited by rapid renewal cycles. Encouraging a responsible purchasing policy, opting for reconditioned equipment, favoring the repair or recycling of equipment are simple measures to implement, beneficial both for the environment and for the company’s finances.
Quality of life at work
One of the aspects that is often underestimated is user behavior. Training and raising awareness among your teams about sustainable digital practices is essential. This can include good practices and simple actions such as optimizing the sending of emails, turning off unused equipment, or even encouraging remote working. In general, we must relearn a form of digital sobriety in the face of overconsumption. One of the most energy-intensive uses of digital technology is streaming video, which can represent 10 to 20 gigabytes of data transferred every hour!
These actions, in addition to reducing the ecological footprint, improve the quality of life at work and efficiency. Adopting a responsible digital strategy strengthens your brand image and your competitiveness. Consumers and business partners are increasingly attentive to corporate social responsibility: by showing that you are taking concrete steps to minimize your environmental impact, you attract not only customers, but also talent who share these values.
Integrating responsible digital into your business strategy is therefore not just a question of compliance or ethics; it is a strategic approach that can lead to substantial savings and improved operational efficiency.
For most companies, responsible digital technology above all allows them to minimize their environmental impact. But for digital professionals, the liability issues are much more numerous and daily.
What is responsible software? If we look at the environmental impact and the interests of the customer, it is software based on computer code that is durable, scalable, easy to maintain, consumes little resources and is very secure. This requires an additional level of quality (and time), but this approach will double the lifespan of software and halve operating costs.
The responsibility of digital companies
The social responsibility of digital companies covers ethical issues, such as the accessibility of information and interfaces. An essential vector of social inclusion, accessibility consists of producing interfaces that are readable by all audiences, regardless of their age, culture, disability or level of education. Benchmarks may seem demanding, but taking them into account will have a huge impact on SEO, speed and site performance.
Likewise, the teams that produce digital platforms must make strong ethical choices on a daily basis: leaving users free in their actions and their data, protecting privacy, promoting the openness of the code and the interoperability of data, defending French and European sovereignty. Taking these subjects into account complicates the work, and does not bring short-term economic gain. This is generally a proactive approach carried out by companies who wish to disseminate these values and raise awareness among users.
Digital companies therefore have an extremely important responsibility, through their activity, which is to create the digital infrastructures of tomorrow. By developing a responsible application today, we offer a responsible service for the next ten years.
All organizations are concerned by the adoption of more economical uses of digital technology, which will reduce energy impact and costs. But these uses are directly linked to the way the software works: even if users can limit their impact, publishers and manufacturers must above all offer lightweight, scalable, accessible and ethical solutions.
Rémi Voluer : President of the Phelen Group and overseas delegate of the Cinov Digital union, Rémi Voluer participated in the creation of several dozen companies in high-tech and innovation. For more than 20 years, he has also supported businesses and communities in the Indian Ocean in their structuring and in anticipating changes linked to new technologies.
