Internet, E-mails: Keeping Control

Being eco-responsible at home is good. Continuing these efforts in your company is even better. The use of the internet is now unavoidable, but it generates real environmental impacts. There are multiple effective ways to reduce them, here are a few:

E-MAILS
To be sorted as soon as they arrive, one must, for example, think about immediately eliminating all spam, not multiplying recipients, and avoiding systematic use of the “reply all” function.

Regarding attachments, they must be light and well-designed (compressed files, low-definition PDFs, optimized documents). Some software allows visuals to be optimized before inserting them into a presentation without visible degradation of quality; others include a compression option such as Squoosh.app (the most comprehensive online compression tool) or Compressor.io, which both allow real-time preview of any potential quality loss of the image after compression and before its download.

However, when possible, it is best to prioritize hyperlinks that do not require any downloads.

Concerning our e-mail signatures, we have chosen CodeTwo to create unique signatures for each employee. Logos and visuals, in low definition, are stored in a cloud and do not require downloading. CodeTwo Email Signatures for Office 365 is developed as part of an information security management system certified ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27018.

DOCUMENT VALIDATION
To validate and sign our digital documents (contracts, invoices, etc.), we have chosen DocuSign, which allows us to achieve real paper savings.

VIDEOCONFERENCING
We have deployed the Orange Open Videopresence videoconferencing system to limit our travel and thereby reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in this area.

INTERNET
It is recommended to perform precise searches on the web using relevant “keywords” or the “advanced search” function and to justify large downloads (video, etc.) or visiting sites using flash animations, which are energy-intensive.

Our websites are mainly hosted by OVHcloud. Indeed, this data center player is very mindful of environmental standards. Secure, greener, but also made in France, OVHcloud’s data centers rely notably on free cooling, which, thanks to a liquid cooling system (with water), reduces the heat emitted by computers. This already existing system was industrialized by OVH and implemented in 2003. The closed circuit improves energy efficiency without using air conditioning systems, which are highly energy-consuming. In Roubaix, the heat emitted by servers is used to heat the campus and the daycare provided for employees. OVHcloud is committed to complying with its obligations under the aforementioned regulations and, particularly, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

DEMATERIALIZATION
We encourage our employees to prefer digital files over printable versions. Archiving is easier, takes up little space, and of course significantly reduces paper use.

CLOUD COMPUTING
For our communication department, which handles and stores large-volume files, we have opted for cloud computing for nearly 15 years. All applications deployed over the last 2 years – DocuSign, TEAMS, ERP Sage X3 (management software), YOOZ (invoice dematerialization), Kyriba (treasury software), IZYPEO (CSR and Carbon Footprint software), OCTIME (time management and HR scheduling software) – are also hosted through cloud computing.

The use of cloud technologies proves to be a good ecological solution as it greatly reduces the need for physical resources since they are pooled. Today, it is the best solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the IT sector through the concentration of resources. By 2024, major cloud computing players (Google, Microsoft, etc.) commit to contributing to global ecology by creating data centers with sustainable methods and prioritizing areas where renewable energy is widely developed.

The repercussions that cloud computing may have on the global CO2 rate will mainly depend on how data centers are designed in the coming years, so it is an important point to monitor when choosing the cleanest providers.

Discover other tips on responsible communication or digital sobriety on the ADEME website.