Today, the digital sector is responsible for around 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This footprint, strongly linked to cloud infrastructures, is a reminder that every player in the sector must commit to making their solutions more sober and responsible.
At ANSAM, we have chosen to assume this responsibility through our 2024 sustainability report and our commitment to B Corp certification. But we also wanted to go a step further by giving our experts a voice, through a series of testimonials in the form of 3 key questions to shed concrete light on the challenges of the digital transition.
Arturo Ibañez, Portfolio Director, shares his views on the environmental impact of the cloud and the importance of digital sovereignty.
The cloud is essential for digital applications, but it also consumes a lot of energy. How can we reduce its footprint and make it more sustainable, while strengthening our strategic autonomy?
1. What are the major environmental challenges facing cloud infrastructures today?
One of the main challenges is the massive energy consumption of data centers. Between powering servers and, above all, cooling them, the energy footprint can be very heavy if not optimized. Today, the digital sector accounts for almost 4% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and this figure is rising steadily with the growth in uses: artificial intelligence, streaming, teleworking, 24/7 services... All this is generating increasing pressure on infrastructures. It is therefore becoming crucial to rethink our technical choices to meet this demand while limiting environmental impact.
2. How important is digital sovereignty in this context?
Digital sovereignty is an essential strategic and environmental lever. Reducing our dependence on non-European hyperscalers means first and foremost regaining control over the location and processing of data, but also over the way energy is produced and consumed in infrastructures. This enables us to make choices that are more consistent with our values, our CSR commitments and our legal framework. It's also a way of fostering a more sustainable local ecosystem, by supporting players who integrate eco-design right from the start of their infrastructures.
3. What can cloud players do to move towards more sustainable models?
There are several concrete levers. Firstly, optimizing architectures: avoiding over-provisioning, reducing unnecessary redundancies, and working on smarter, more frugal deployments. Next, the choice of data centers: favor eco-designed infrastructures, powered by renewable energy and designed to limit their carbon footprint right from the construction stage. Finally, a point that is often underestimated: transparency. It is essential to provide clear, reliable and comprehensible indicators of the environmental impact of cloud services. This is what enables customers to make informed choices - and the whole ecosystem to move forward together.