Green IO

How hard is it to make a mobile phone that’s low on environmental impact and big on ethics? Perhaps a radical idea to some, but that’s one of the main aims of Faiphone, a mobile phone maker that’s all about creating systemic change from within the industry. And as Fairphone Tech Lead Agnes Crepet explains, this goal isn’t just a lofty ambition, but something that is actually being achieved thanks to the participation of chipset makers, suppliers, factories, software vendors and everyone in between. Since joining Fairphone over seven years ago, Agnes has helped the company deliver on the promise of creating ethical, social and environmental impact by designing and building products that put people and planet first. That means pioneering fairer working conditions, ensuring a living wage, considerations of materials and where they are sourced, and a focus on device longevity through end-user repairability and extended software support. But, that’s only half the story…

It’s time that we reframe sustainability as a criterion for success, not just a checkbox on a regulatory report. And on today’s episode of Green IO, Gaël is joined Jo Masraff and Sathpal Singh, two domain experts who demonstrate how changing our approach to sustainability can be a key difference maker for businesses across any industry. Jo and Sath also discuss the key findings from the recent Digital Product Sustainability Pulse Report, along with what they’ve seen in the field first hand, and (realistic) hopes for the future.

They say that numbers don’t lie… but what if we are looking at the wrong numbers to begin with? On today’s episode of Green IO, Gaël is joined by Cathleen Berger who is here to help us decipher why accurate emissions reporting is so crucial, and why Big Tech continues to make big mistakes when it comes to the figures they release. Because as the former Head of Sustainability at Mozilla, a lecturer at the Friedrich Schiller University and the head of research and policy for the Deputy Chair on the Digital Committee of the German parliament it’s safe to say that Cathleen knows a thing or two about why accurate data matters.

Over the last 3 months, several studies were published about GenAI and its environmental footprint. The most famous are Mistral AI’s life cycle analysis and Google’s study on Gemini. The opportunity and the conclusions of the Gemini prompt study were heavily debated in the Green IT field, including by two of the most respected thought leaders: Mark Butcher and Wilco Burggraaf. This Green IO episode is thus a first: the first ever debate. A polite, constructive and yet incredibly insightful debate where Mark, Wilco and their host Gaël Duez. ❤️ Like and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. All the references, the link to get free tickets, the wrap-up article and the full transcript is on Green IO website here: https://greenio.tech

The potential impact of Artificial Intelligence on our worsening climate crisis is certainly a hot topic, pardon the pun. Fortunately, we have an expert on today’s show to help us make sense of it all. Iuna Tsyrulneva is one of the leading voices in AI and sustainability. Well versed on both topics, Iuna holds a PhD in materials science, and works at Earth Observatory of Singapore with an interdisciplinary approach. She’s full of interesting insights, and brings a dynamic approach to thinking about the larger issue. For example, did you know that saying “thank you” after every prompt actually contributes to AI energy usage? And they say kindness costs nothing… As you’ll hear from Iuna, optimisation is the key to affecting sustainability in Artificial Intelligence. And that goes beyond ‘clean code’. Throughout our conversation, Iuna unpacks the end-to-end scope of optimisation, or what she calls her ‘four pillars’ of sustainable AI, that being algorithmic, hardware, data center and usage optimisation. In this episode, Gaël and Iuna also discuss: Sustainable AI vs AI for Sustainability How (if at all) can we mitigate Jevons paradox? Tackling the financial incentive vs sustainability in AI Why she’s optimistic about the future of sustainable AI Using more energy efficient languages to build next-gen AI Leveraging open-source frameworks to lower resource costs Practical tips on how to make AI models more energy efficient And much more! ❤️ Like and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. All the references, the link to get free tickets, the wrap-up article and the full transcript is on Green IO website here: https://greenio.tech