Climate change and the cloud - Platform.sh view point

Fred Plais (@FredPlais), CEO at Platform.sh, and Leah Goldfarb (@leahgoldfarb), Environmental Impact Officer at Platform.sh, will talk about "Climate change and IT, scaling sustainably":

This session will provide an overview of climate change, explore how to quantitatively reduce your carbon footprint in the cloud, and explore what actionable information is needed by the client.

The ICT sector contributes ~4% of global greenhouse gas emissions – this is more than global aviation and growing so much faster.

Transcript

1. Climate change and the cloud: we scale sustainably Fred Plais & Leah Goldfarb
2. Fred Plais CEO & co-founder, Platform.sh + Serial Tech entrepreneur + Building digital products & web projects since 2000 + French citizen living in California (USA) + Passionate about reducing tech’s environmental impact
3. Leah Goldfarb Environmental Impact Officer, Platform.sh + PhD in physical chemistry: atmospheric focus + Climate specialist + Passionate about reducing tech’s environmental impact + US citizen living in France
5. Question: PHPs CO 2 impact in @2021? France’s emissions : ~300 MtCO 2 /year‡ Austria’s emissions : ~65 MtCO 2 /year‡ v7.4 → 8.1 ‡http://www.globalcarbonatlas.org/en/CO2-emissions (2021)
6. Guesstimate: PHP’s CO 2 contribution *Count not volume (!) bit.ly/3OaxVUk CO 2 globally* ICT 4% GHG‡ WWW PHP powered websites 25% 4% 40,000 77%** 300 Mt CO₂/yr MtCO 2 /year ‡2040:Belkhir & Elemeligi (2018) *joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/ (2020) of all websites
7. Guesstimate: averted CO 2 v7.4 → 8.1 † Even if this estimate is too large (by an order of magnitude?), still significant Conversion factor electricity→ CO 2 300 0.75 30%** MtCO 2 /year 67 Mt CO₂ potentially† averted faster/ less electricity v7.4 → 8.1 **https://externals.io/message/116323
8. Back of the envelope France’s emissions : ~300 MtCO 2 /year‡ Austria’s emissions : ~65 MtCO 2 /year‡ v7.4 → 8.1 ‡http://www.globalcarbonatlas.org/en/CO2-emissions (2021)† Even if this estimate is too large (by an order of magnitude?), still significant
9. Why stop with PHP updating? • 5-10% of websites use Symfony • Updating Symfony* would further speed applications and reduce resource use Updating: version x.4 to (x + 1).0 → legacy code removed
10. Leveraging resource optimization One small action could lead to big carbon reductions #updatetophp8.1 #updateSymfony6.2
11. Outline Why you don’t need another server • Climate change • Role of the ICT community • MODE strategy • Next steps
12. Climate change
14. 14 Image: Climate Reality
15. Paris Agreement & projections 2 °C 1.5 °C Today’s policies: 2.7 °C 2030 pledges: 2.0 °C
16. Long-term: it is cheaper to act now on climate https://skepticalscience .com/graphics.php?g=11
17. Cost of electricity by source (2009-2019) $300/MWh 2009 2019 $200/MWh $100/MWh $0/MWh $40 Solar PV $41 Onshore wind $56 Gas (combined cycle) $109 Coal $155 Nuclear $359 $135 $83 $111 $123 https://ourworldindata.org/cheap -renewables-growth
18. Role of the IT community
19. ICT global carbon footprint relative to total global footprint % ICT’s total global carbon footprint ~4% (2020) 15% (2040) max ~7% (2040) min 💻 2040:Belkhir & Elemeligi (2018)
20. Cloud carbon auditing: boundary conditions* Data centers: • Servers manufacturing • Electricity • Refrigerant • Gas consumption • All based on servers lifetime assessment Network: • Fixed networks (includes office internet router) • Mobile networks backbone Electricity • Models: ADEMExARCEP and free.fr studies • Network manufacturing parts • End-user devices Inside Platform.sh’s scope Outside** of Platform.sh scope *From our carbon auditor: ** In the scopes of device and network manufactures.
21. Learnings and actions
22. Climate is not an afterthought For years, Platform.sh has said climate is not an afterthought + In April 2021, Platform.sh signed the Climate Act ◦ Committed to carbon audits ◦ 50% cut to emissions by 2030
24. M.O.D.E.
25. Measure: carbon auditing • Third-party certified by using the GHG protocol • 2020 carbon audit results (tCO2eq) Type tCO 2 eq Scope 1 5 Scope 2 1 Scope 3 4 014 (88 PSH +3926 clients) TOTAL 4 020
26. Optimize: it is a shared responsibility Density App/code
27. Fewer resources mean less electricity used • 10x higher density for production • 14x higher density for development Up to 12X fewer servers used* Standard approach Platform.sh * certified comparison to AWS EC2 virtual machines
28. Optimize your performance With Blackfire: • Measure loading times • Identify bottlenecks • Follow recommendations 20x more concurrent orders for GOG.com Following the adoption of Blackfire.io in the development workflow, up to
29. Optimizing: reduces resource consumption ↓ servers used (up to 12x) → ↓CO 2 by up to 9x + Updating software + Use an APM (Application Performance Monitor) such as Blackfire Virtual machine Platform.sh
30. Deploy: to greener regions 1. A measurement of CO2 produced per electricity produced 2. Carbon intensity can vary in time 3. This shows the importance of a location-based, rather than market-based approach https://app.electricitymap.org/map Great Britain 143g Carbon intensity 76% 57% Renewable Low-carbon Germany 249g Carbon intensity 79% 75% Renewable Low-carbon Sweden 29g Carbon intensity 100% 69% Renewable Low-carbon Ireland 246g Carbon intensity 59% 59% Renewable Low-carbon France 24g Carbon intensity 98% 39% Renewable Low-carbon OVH GCP AWS Azure
31. Data from app.electricitymap.org/map GCP AWS Azure Arizona Public Service Company (USA) 575g Carbon intensity 3% 3% Renewable Low-carbon PJM Interconnection, LIc (USA) 383g Carbon intensity 41% 10% Renewable Low-carbon Quebec, Canada 28g Carbon intensity 100% 100% Renewable Low-carbon 3 choices: Up to a 15x difference in carbon intensity • 󰎟 Quebec, CA ~30 (gCO₂eq/kWh) • 󰑔 Northern,Va ~350 (gCO₂eq/kWh) • 󰑔 El Mirage, AZ ~500 (gCO₂eq/kWh) Deploy: to greener regions
32. Carbon intensity transparency https://console.platform.sh Full transparency on the underlying carbon intensity of the region’s electricity grid provider
33. Educate • Carbon auditing is in its infancy • Carbon auditors: network is less resource-intensive Our 2020 audit + 19% compute + 9% storage + 72% transfer 2021 audit (tbc) + 35% compute + 11% storage + 54% transfer How viral cat videos are warming the planet 2015 2020
34. We partner to reduce your carbon footprint We prioritize on density and servers’ optimization and green localization deployment Observability and monitoring Up to 20x better performance Efficiency and density 5-12x more efficient Location deployment Up to 15x CO 2 reduction Greenly certified
35. Conclusions • We must act now to address climate change + We have solutions; it is question of how fast we act • You can take action + Update PHP and Symfony, use a APM + Move projects to greener regions + This will result in: ▪ Faster apps ▪ Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions • Follow-up talk (9:50, Platform Room) + Calculating what we can’t see: carbon emissions in the cloud
36. Thank you! Fred Plais CEO co-Founder, Platform.sh Leah Goldfarb Environmental Impact Officer, Platform.sh
37. Conclusions • Shared responsibility + Update PHP and Symfony + APM + Greener region selection • Results + Faster apps + Less carbon dioxide • Follow-up SymfonyCon talk + Calculating what we can’t see: carbon emissions in the cloud
38. Leveraging resource optimization One small action could lead to big carbon reductions #updatetophp8.1 #updateSymfony6.2 5% of sites running 1% faster
40. 40 // Brand guide Colors Neutrals Secondary 100 #121216 90 #27232E 80 #3A3442 70 #5C5661 60 #7F7680 50 #AA9EAA 40 #CCC4CA 30 #EBE4E8 20 #F4F0F2 10 #FAF6F8 Pink #FFB1B5 Blue #3991FB Magenta #ED3ECD Orange #FF5A0A Yellow #FFAE00 Lt Pink #FFD1D5 Lt blue #C4E2FF Fuschia #FFC3F4 Lt orange #FFCDB5 Lt yellow #FFDF9C Green #00c972 Lt green #B3EBD2 Dk blue #1A548C DK Fuschia #8F1B7A Dk orange #8F2F00 Dk yellow #D89300 Dk green #006E3E
41. // Short-term: it is cheaper to act on climate than ignore it (IMF) 41 More economic losses, with delayed action GDP growth Inflation Higher inflation with delayed action Act now Act later 2022 2026 2026 2026