Eco-design: the importance of “just enough”

In any case, action must be taken to limit the impact of digital technology, as it is no longer a “small” sector. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, and use of mineral resources, it has now surpassed many traditional industries. Most of this impact is linked to the manufacture of the equipment we need (devices and infrastructure). And it is growing exponentially with the advent of AI.

It is important to assess your actual digital needs, as in other sectors : do you need an 800 horsepower car to drive at 50 mph, knowing that it will consume more fuel than a less powerful vehicle and be more complex to maintain? 

Marketing pushes us to evaluate performance based on criteria that do not necessarily correspond to our needs. We are sometimes offered services that are more spectacular than useful. But all this comes at a cost, both to our finances and to the planet. 

As an IT services company, we have a duty to provide our customers with tailored, sustainable solutions, not gadgets that are expensive to maintain.

On the contrary, good eco-design practices contribute to application performance.  

For example, if we think in terms of pure power, we may be tempted to preload a large amount of data when an application is opened so that it can be displayed more quickly when the user requests it. In reality, such a strategy is often counterproductive: preloading slows down the application and makes it unstable, especially if the network and terminal are not optimal. Conversely, if we wait for the user to define the data they need, only that data will need to be loaded, and the display will ultimately be faster. 

This is a good example of the efficiency of a “just-in-time” approach, as opposed to a waste of power that often has limited effects at a much higher cost. Since the impact of digital technology is linked to the production of the equipment used, it is important to design services that continue to function without requiring rapid replacement of equipment.  

Our customers in the public service and industrial sectors are naturally very sensitive to this balance between the service provided and its cost.

We have chosen to align ourselves with the methodology of the RGESN, the French government's general eco-design framework for digital services. It is a mature, well-documented, and relatively easy-to-implement tool. Our customers have therefore adopted it. 

The RGESN defines 78 criteria in nine areas: 

• Strategy, which measures the usefulness of the service or the sustainability and interoperability of technologies. 
• Specifications, which ensure that the application works properly with older devices and environments. 
• Architecture, which must be scalable and adaptable to new requirements. 
• UX/UI, which defines user journeys and an interface tailored to user expectations. 
• Content, which assesses the usefulness and simplicity of the media offered. 
• Frontend, which focuses on the weight of the components used, code compression, caching, etc. 
• The backend, which controls the use of caching and archiving. 
• Hosting, which defines minimized energy and water usage by servers, the consistency of their geographic location, and proper data flow management. 
• Algorithms, which concern AI and the impact of its learning and retraining.

At Sully, we have integrated eco-design into our ISO 9001 Quality Management System. This means that, right from the pre-sales stage, we define the level of eco-design requirements for the service. 

If customer requirements are low, at a minimum, we implement a set of best practices that our employees are trained in.  

If the requirements are high, this involves measuring the RGESN score and taking corrective action to improve it. In this case, we appoint a representative at the start of the project. Their role is to coordinate audits and improvements in order to achieve the target score. 

It is important that the requirement is integrated from the start of the project: a poor choice of architecture or technology cannot be corrected without significant costs if development work has already begun.

The eco-design approach is more of an opportunity to build truly effective services, services that are tailored to real needs and provide lasting value. Measuring this performance certainly requires effort, but it also guarantees quality.

On the other hand, it is important for Sully to offer its clients approaches tailored to each context. To support SMMAG (the Grenoble region's public transport authority) and DNUM (the French Ministry of Ecology's digital department) with the eco-design of their services, we integrated ourselves into existing project organizations to propose actions that would not slow down the teams' progress.

Finally, our employees are made aware of and trained in best practices. UX/UI designers, for example, design user journeys and interfaces that natively integrate the concern for the right need. 

Ultimately, designing a sustainable service also means making money. Remember that one of the pillars of sustainable development is economic, and that ecology and economy share the same etymology.