A presentation at MaccTech in in Macclesfield, UK by Rick Butterfield
Introducing the Carbon Intensity API fi @rickbutter eld
Hi, I’m Rick 👋 Development Team Lead at Nexer Digital fi @rickbutter eld
Sustainability is a big deal right? fi @rickbutter eld
3.7% fi @rickbutter eld
“The carbon footprint of our gadgets, the internet and the systems supporting them accounts for 3.7% of global greenhouse emissions, similar to the airline industry. These emissions are predicted to double by 2025.” BBC Future, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200305-why-your-internet-habits-are-not-as-clean-as-you-think fi @rickbutter eld
How can we, as technologists, help solve this problem? fi @rickbutter eld
“You can’t improve what you don’t measure.” Peter Drucker fi @rickbutter eld
What is the Carbon Intensity API? fi @rickbutter eld
Possible use cases • Automatically turning on dark mode • Disabling high quality images to save bandwidth • Turn off autoplaying video fi @rickbutter eld
The Low Impact Manifesto • 1. Does not load any images before they are actively requested by the user. • 2. Minimises the power consumption on the users device. • 3. Adapts to re ect the amount of renewable energy it’s currently running on. • 4. Informs the user of the impact of their browsing behavior. • 5. Does not make use of videos. • 6. Stores data locally on the user’s device to minimise data transfer. • 7. Compresses all data to the greatest extent possible. • 8. Loads only the most crucial programming scripts, frameworks and cookies. • 9. Limits the amount of light emitted by the screen. • 10. Optimises and limits the use of custom fonts. https://lowimpact.organicbasics.com/ fl fi @rickbutter eld
Introducing the Carbon Intensity API fi @rickbutter eld
National Grid have released a free, open API to query the past, present and future carbon usage of the grid as a whole and at regional level. This talk is a surface level exploration of that API.
for free. You
can too.