The Digital Solutions Division (DSN) of the Loire-Atlantique Department provides the 5,000 officials of the Department, its associated bodies, and schools with a number of services (printers, computers and telephones, IT consumables, and applications). Already driven by strong ambitions on responsible digital and in the perspective of its new strategic plan, the DSN wanted to adopt a roadmap on environmental sustainability, by first measuring the environmental footprint of its digital technology.
As a result, Wavestone and BL Evolution were asked to measure the environmental footprint of the Institution’s IS as well as the schools’ IS, identify the most energy-consuming activities, and propose an approach for the years to come.
Measuring the environmental footprint over a full year
The first two months of the project were dedicated to collecting data using life-cycle analysis (LCA) based on a multi-step and multi-criteria assessment. Four criteria were studied for each stage in the life of the equipment (extraction, manufacture, transport, use, and recycling): consumption of non-renewable primary energy, depletion of abiotic resources, water consumption, and CO2 emissions.
This first step enabled a better understanding of the factors influencing the environmental footprint (for example, the amount and type of equipment used by each official). Over the lifetime of the equipment, the Department already performed better than the market average (all sectors combined, public and private).
A turnkey roadmap for transformation
The workshops made it possible to draw out the ambitions that the DSN has set itself in terms of Sustainable Digital:
They enabled about 50 actions to be prioritized, giving substance to the “Sustainable Digital 2022-2024” roadmap. The work includes a quantification of the potential environmental gains of each action, as well as the associated implementation effort (in person days).
The implementation of all the roadmap actions must enable a reduction in the environmental footprint of the Department’s IS, and the bringing under control of the growth in the environmental footprint of the Schools’ IS, which is impacted by the implementation of the new Digital Plan for Schools (PNC).
“Wavestone’s advice and expertise on responsible digital technology have enabled us to meet our expectations by building, based on the results of measuring the SI’s environmental footprint, the action plan that feeds the new management project and helps us reduce our footprint.“
Safia D’ZIRI, Director of the Digital Solutions Department
