Welcome & No ICT without mineral extraction
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Plone Conference 202217 / 44
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Turtle graphicsFood energyReduction of orderGraph coloringPhase transitionRegulator geneElement (mathematics)Expert systemTelecommunicationBoss CorporationBitLink (knot theory)Graph (mathematics)Type theoryMoment (mathematics)Arrow of timeStrategy gameVideoconferencingContrast (vision)Product (business)WebsiteSmartphoneTerm (mathematics)Error messageMaterialization (paranormal)Event horizonClient (computing)AreaServer (computing)Web pageCommitment schemeSelf-organizationLevel (video gaming)YouTubeSoftware developerWave packetGroup actionRaw image formatElectronic program guideCollaborationismLimit (category theory)1 (number)MereologyPerspective (visual)Sign (mathematics)ImplementationDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Direction (geometry)CASE <Informatik>Heat transferData managementBasis <Mathematik>Computing platformVulnerability (computing)EmailLocal ringVideo gameLatent heatCycle (graph theory)Computer fileService (economics)Cartesian coordinate systemMusical ensembleStatisticsVector potentialHome pageMassDimensional analysisView (database)Revision controlData centerGradientOrder (biology)Software maintenanceNatural numberMaxima and minimaTheory of relativityPoint (geometry)Closed setIntegrated development environmentMultiplication signLoop (music)Functional (mathematics)PurchasingVolume (thermodynamics)Traffic reportingECosRadical (chemistry)PhysicalismInsertion lossCategory of beingDigitizingNeuroinformatikInclusion mapChannel capacityCondition numberQuery languageCore dumpNumberTablet computerSource codeElectric generatorCollaborative softwareE-bookInstance (computer science)Flow separationDivision (mathematics)Lattice (order)CodeHypermediaNetwork topologySimilarity (geometry)PlanningState of matterWeb serviceSemiconductor memoryPointer (computer programming)VideoportalGoodness of fitSlide ruleWordMixed realityEquivalence relationStress (mechanics)Asynchronous Transfer ModeAssociative propertyArtificial neural networkTube (container)Translation (relic)Medical imagingArithmetic meanNoise (electronics)Water vaporAlpha (investment)Variety (linguistics)Power (physics)SoftwareInternet forum2 (number)Universe (mathematics)Zoom lensTouchscreenGeometrySystem administratorGame theoryBit rateRhombusDegree (graph theory)Coma BerenicesPhysical systemAuthorizationTransformation (genetics)Normal (geometry)TrailSpeech synthesisLogic gateRadio-frequency identificationFlagStudent's t-testPolygonMetreVideo projectorSurface of revolutionWeb 2.0Band matrixoutputAndroid (robot)Computer animationLecture/Conference
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Image registrationTurtle graphicsImage registrationRoundness (object)XMLComputer animationLecture/Conference
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Lecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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DiameterSummierbarkeitLecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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Instance (computer science)Surface of revolutionHypermediaFood energyProduct (business)Lecture/Conference
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Food energySource codeFood energyTable (information)Element (mathematics)Moment (mathematics)Computer animationDiagramLecture/Conference
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SmartphoneType theoryElement (mathematics)TouchscreenElement (mathematics)HypermediaMoment (mathematics)Lecture/ConferenceXML
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Element (mathematics)Materialization (paranormal)CASE <Informatik>Computer animationLecture/ConferenceDiagram
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AliasingCASE <Informatik>Power (physics)Food energyStudent's t-testLecture/ConferenceEngineering drawingDiagram
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Web pageTelecommunicationPoint (geometry)Lecture/ConferenceComputer animationDiagram
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Exploratory data analysisGEDCOMCASE <Informatik>Point (geometry)Lecture/ConferenceMeeting/InterviewDiagram
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Element (mathematics)Bit rate
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Peer-to-peerMassAuthorizationCASE <Informatik>Computer animation
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2 (number)Computer animationLecture/Conference
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Gamma functionMoment (mathematics)Lecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Moment (mathematics)Level (video gaming)Student's t-testComputer animation
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2 (number)Speech synthesisLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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CASE <Informatik>Logic gateSmartphone
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Radio-frequency identificationCASE <Informatik>Lecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Source codeRaw image formatDirected setFeasibility studyProduct (business)Operations researchNatural numberMoment (mathematics)Product (business)Instance (computer science)Logical constantTraffic reportingComputer animation
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Customer relationship managementMaterialization (paranormal)Traffic reportingMoment (mathematics)Lecture/ConferenceProgram flowchart
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Customer relationship managementSoftware developerMoment (mathematics)Lecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Data managementWave packetMoment (mathematics)MereologyPoint (geometry)View (database)Lecture/Conference
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Data managementSmartphoneAreaMoment (mathematics)PlastikkarteCycle (graph theory)Lecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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2 (number)Cycle (graph theory)SmartphoneRaw image formatComputer animationDiagram
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Data managementMathematicsChemical equationAbsolute valueInstance (computer science)Loop (music)Meeting/InterviewComputer animation
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MathematicsSoftware developerChemical equationAbsolute valueArithmetic meanTraffic reportingDegree (graph theory)Computer animationDiagram
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Distribution (mathematics)FlagAreaComputer animationEngineering drawing
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Term (mathematics)Time zoneNormal (geometry)Drill commandsAreaVolume (thermodynamics)Loop (music)GradientLecture/ConferenceComputer animationDiagram
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Raw image formatVector potentialSource codeData Encryption StandardElement (mathematics)MedianClosed setMathematical analysisFood energyPoint (geometry)Lecture/ConferenceMeeting/InterviewJSONComputer animation
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Element (mathematics)DialectVector potential
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Programmable read-only memoryEmailService (economics)Phase transitionPerformance appraisalLemma (mathematics)Formal grammarPlane (geometry)ComputerMoment (mathematics)Similarity (geometry)CASE <Informatik>DialectLattice (order)Local ringSource codeXMLMeeting/Interview
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Plane (geometry)Data managementIntegrated development environmentArithmetic meanStress (mechanics)Slide ruleWordRaw image formatComputer animation
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Arc (geometry)MiddlewareProcess (computing)Stress (mechanics)XML
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Local ringData conversionDirected setTable (information)Pairwise comparisonCASE <Informatik>Traffic reportingComputer animation
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Data managementData Encryption StandardOrder (biology)Theory of relativityData managementNatural numberState of matterCASE <Informatik>Lecture/ConferenceMeeting/InterviewComputer animation
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NeuroinformatikGoodness of fitPointer (computer programming)Lecture/Conference
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HypermediaLecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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Food energyIntegrated development environmentCondition numberDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Type theoryPhase transitionComputer animationLecture/Conference
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Integrated development environmentFood energyGreen's functionReduction of orderSoftware developerTerm (mathematics)Translation (relic)Lecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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Information systemsService (economics)Different (Kate Ryan album)Goodness of fitSystem administratorType theoryMixed realityLecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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Pole (complex analysis)Customer relationship managementSource codeWeb serviceAssociative propertyArtificial neural networkType theoryInternet forumFlow separationFood energyCycle (graph theory)Source codeVideo gamePlastikkarteTerm (mathematics)Computer animationLecture/Conference
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Food energySource codeSoftwareMultiplication signXMLComputer animationLecture/Conference
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Computer networkFood energyNumberBitServer (computing)Data centerSoftwareMassComputer animationLecture/Conference
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SmartphoneTerm (mathematics)Video gameCycle (graph theory)StatisticsLecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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Source codeProcess (computing)Video gameProduct (business)SmartphoneCASE <Informatik>Lecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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Different (Kate Ryan album)Term (mathematics)Phase transitionType theorySmartphoneMaterialization (paranormal)PhysicalismCASE <Informatik>Limit (category theory)Multiplication signInsertion lossXML
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Drum memoryChi-squared distributionData Encryption StandardDistribution (mathematics)VideoconferencingTerm (mathematics)Computer animationLecture/Conference
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Source codeDistribution (mathematics)VideoconferencingType theoryVideoconferencingWebsiteVideoportalHeat transferComputer fileTerm (mathematics)Email1 (number)Diagram
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Tablet computerPoint (geometry)BitSmartphoneTube (container)Musical ensembleMedical imagingMereologyCartesian coordinate systemVideoconferencingTerm (mathematics)Lecture/Conference
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VideoconferencingAbelian categorySource codeDistribution (mathematics)Group actionEquivalence relationCategory of beingZoom lensSelf-organizationGame theoryDiagramXML
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Inclusion mapWorld Wide Web ConsortiumInclusion mapTerm (mathematics)Strategy gameRegulator geneSoftware developerMoment (mathematics)AdditionBitDirection (geometry)Computer animation
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Reduction of orderComa BerenicesRegulator geneImplementation1 (number)Perspective (visual)Integrated development environmentECosCartesian coordinate systemComputer animationLecture/Conference
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PurchasingTelecommunicationProduct (business)Service (economics)Digital signalData managementSelf-organization1 (number)VideoconferencingData managementVulnerability (computing)Home pageWebsiteComputer animation
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Group actionLatent heatAreaVideo gameTerm (mathematics)Channel capacityDigitizingLecture/Conference
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Group actionDigital signalComputer fileCollaborative softwareCartesian coordinate systemStatisticsFunctional (mathematics)Lecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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Band matrixDigital divideService (economics)Lemma (mathematics)Term (mathematics)NeuroinformatikChannel capacityCodeSemiconductor memoryEmailLecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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Digital divideService (economics)Reduction of orderTerm (mathematics)Library (computing)Cartesian coordinate systemNumberDivision (mathematics)Web serviceCodeBand matrixElectric generatorServer (computing)Web 2.0SmartphoneFunctional (mathematics)Computer animationLecture/Conference
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Physical systemClient (computing)Vector potentialAndroid (robot)SmartphoneoutputLecture/Conference
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Service (economics)WebsiteElement (mathematics)WebsiteEvent horizonClient (computing)Term (mathematics)Error messageContrast (vision)Computer animation
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WebsiteGraph coloringExpert systemGoodness of fitGraph (mathematics)Boss CorporationMassComputer animationLecture/Conference
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MeasurementGroup actionInformation systemsElement (mathematics)Gamma functionElectronic program guideLink (knot theory)Different (Kate Ryan album)CollaborationismBitSign (mathematics)MereologySelf-organizationWave packetCommitment schemeComputer animationLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Peer-to-peerVideo gameVideoconferencingE-bookRevision controlLecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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VideoconferencingYouTubeFood energyComputer-generated imageryLimit (category theory)Uniform resource locatorWeb pageMeta elementMusical ensembleEmailComputer fileVideoconferencingHeat transferYouTubeComputing platformWebsiteElement (mathematics)Web pageBasis <Mathematik>Computer animationLecture/Conference
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Uniform resource locatorWeb pageTurtle graphicsComputer animationLecture/Conference
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:19
Welcome everyone to this second day of the conference.
00:23
We hope you had a good time last evening and enjoy the Beowulf. I'm happy to give you some numbers about this year conference. In total there is more than 200 people that will come to Namur.
00:40
There is a French track today on the fourth floor and tomorrow there will be students that will discover Plone and his community. There is also more than 130 registration from 23 different countries and we are really happy to have so many people this year.
01:08
And now for the second keynote we are pleased to have Johan Janss and Olivier Vergheinst that will talk about ICT and mineral extraction.
01:21
Let's give him a round of applause.
02:50
There is stones at the end of the Age of Stone. Calcopyric with copper and so on, with bronze, with tin, with iron, the Romans know seven meters, that is why we have seven days.
03:05
For instance the Saturday is for Saturn and for lead because in French the Saturnism is the lead porzoining, the lead disease. And we are in the Anthropocene, the Age of Industrial Revolution and we extract a
03:21
lot, and I remember this to my students, a lot of fossil fuels including now. For electricity we extract coal, gas, oil and we know that for a couple of months with the media. And this is only for electricity which is itself 20% of the production of energy in Belgium.
03:47
So for 20% of this energy for electricity we need this. And we are now in a transition, this is slow, very slow, slow, slow, slow, to the age of the electron.
04:03
We extract each element of the Mendeleev table at the moment. Especially for this, this is why you are here, this is why I am here. So this is this Proseum, ah yes, it will be a sketch.
04:21
This is this Proseum, Neodym, Praseodym, Samarium, Terbium which are high earth elements but also base metals such as this one that you probably know, especially lithium, cobalt, manganese and nickel for the batteries. So for this kind of daily product, at least for the health of the population at the moment on earth, you need this kind of element for screen.
04:52
Indium is very interesting, electronics, copper, silver, gold and so on for batteries you know that at the moment because this is popularized in the media for a couple of years now.
05:02
This is also the case for green technologies with a lot, but a lot of metals and non -metal materials such as this one, once again for wind turbines, a lot of high earth elements, especially neodymium and this Proseum, and this is well known for a couple of years for at least one decade.
05:35
It will concern a lot of metals for green technology than oil and uranium energy, but of course green technologies consumes less oil and uranium.
05:49
So this is the case and well known and published for one decade now. It is also the case for concrete, you need more concrete and more glass and sand for just non-metal for wind and photovoltaic energy than coal-fried power.
06:07
This is easy to understand, but this is interesting to remind this to my students each year because this is unknown in Belgium for a lot of reasons. So you have the price of copper from this to now and you can see that for a lot of decades prices are very low.
06:30
This is why we had a low investment in geological resources, because prices are low, and you have more important my point of view, low investment in human resources and a low communication and popularization about these resources.
06:48
This is completely unknown. This is why with the supply and the demand you have a large increase at the beginning of this century and some colleagues, mainly economics, told me that this is a new increase for a couple of years.
07:09
Not related directly to this, this is in French but it is easy to understand, because if you have a look on the prices of copper from February 2022, the initiation of the war in Ukraine, you can see that the prices are higher earlier, much earlier.
07:31
This is a structural problem, this is not especially due to one point in the world. This is the case for copper, this is the case for uranium, this is the case for gold, February 2022, this is not the case for gas, of course I would say.
08:02
So what is mining? This is interesting. If you need silver, you need an element with 47 protons. This is what you need when you need silver. And you can extract it from this kind of rocks, from a mineral, and you have silver within the mineral but there are a lot of other elements.
08:26
And in this rock, the rate of silver is 0.01%. So your deal is of course to have this. You have to transform to this and you have a lot of techniques well known for centuries in fact.
08:46
It requires a lot of volume, a lot of water, a lot of energy, a lot of knowledge of somosapiens. This is why the human resources are very important. So this is profitable, this is a norm, 0.1. This is 5,000 more than in the average crust. This is why this is profitable. Even it looks quite low.
09:12
And this is important. In Western Europe and in other countries, you need an authorization to extract. This is not the case everywhere in the world, I will show you that.
09:26
And you can see that we extract a lot of iron, 2.5 billion tons, a lot of manganese, chromium and so on. In fact we extract each year 92 billion tons of geological resources. This is more than 13 million swimming pools.
09:53
This is one swimming pool each two seconds. One swimming pool extracted from the earth.
10:03
Because 92 billion tons you mean. Why and how? In this kind of mine. And you know that. But it's poorly popularized at the moment with high technology, non-metals in
10:21
the European Union but metals mainly out of the European Union of course. Or some pictures, I will show you the various pictures because you are here to have pictures, not to have a lot of text. This is no reason. A nice quarry in Belgium, 5 kilometers far from here, from Namur, the largest quarry of Dolomites of Europe.
10:47
5 kilometers far from here. But for metals mainly not in Europe, mainly out of Europe. This is cobalt. So the batteries you have needs cobalt at the moment. And cobalt is extracted 60% of cobalt of the world.
11:07
60, not 16, 60% is extracted from this level. I know this is incredible but this is true. This kind of level. Each around DRC of course.
11:23
This is mining with mining companies of manganese out of Europe now. Not one century ago, now. With a PG student from the University of Namur looking for the Dior in black.
11:40
The pits, the digger out of the pits, the digger with Dior. And the blackface, quite similar for people know that than the blackface a couple of decades and two centuries ago in Belgium but elsewhere in France and the UK.
12:06
But the second way for mining is this. What is called artisanal mining in French but also in English because this is the word in French because it has been taken in Congo. Congo is a tradition of French speaking. So you have bags and follow the bags. The bags are very important.
12:30
You can clean the bag with someone there. You can control it.
12:44
The bags are transported by children and you can imagine that this is Malachi. This is mineral with a lot of copper. You follow the bag into the car. The car transports the bags into the trucks and we stay in our car in this case because it becomes quite dangerous.
13:03
And we follow to this. This gate. What about a lot of copper, zinc, bronze, aluminium and so on. And what about these chimneys just over there. These are furnaces in fact and you recognize the bags. Furnaces, artisanal of course to produce these ingots.
13:25
This is following the World Bank about 20% of cobalt or copper in DRC and DRC produce 60% of cobalt of the world. It means that about 12% of the cobalt I have in my smart phone come from this kind of extraction.
13:45
So this is the same in another country in Africa. You follow the trucks, you have the road and people with pits in the road, with hammer.
14:02
They have bags the same than in other countries with donkeys in this case to the cars and so on. You can imagine. This is in 2020. This is not one century ago this picture. I'm sure about it. I took the picture.
14:25
So the main productors of metals are not European Union and you can see that this is mainly other countries well known. This is well known at the moment and China. And in Europe we have a few metal production. Mainly graphite, lithium, nickel and cobalt which is byproduct of nickel and copper.
14:47
This is not a production of cobalt itself. This is byproduct. And you can see that in France for instance and Belgium no extraction but smelteries and refineries. Especially for India.
15:02
So European Union constant and this is the first report in 2010. Then we have critical raw material. It means that these materials have an economic importance and a supply risk.
15:22
And if you combine both the character you have this critical raw material. Of course Niobium is critical for Europe not for Brazil because Brazil is the main producer of Niobium. This is new report in 2020 but this is the same picture in fact with some new metals.
15:51
Have a look on the previous one. Yes, lithium is here. Not critical. No problem for lithium at this moment.
16:04
But now, yes, lithium is here. It evolves. So for the future. This is a nice picture in teaching the sustainable development I have at the moment.
16:23
This is very green. You can imagine that all ice at the moment directly have a look on this. And the metals we need for this. This is a lot of metals. The bicycle also for the wind turbines for the train. In fact this picture is a geological picture.
16:52
So for circular economy you know that this is one of the way we have to go on and we have to increase in the next years.
17:02
For a lot of part circular economy this is not only recycling. This is a lot of produce and a lot of way before recycling. Recycling is the end and the bad end of the circular economy. This is well known at the moment.
17:25
The new fabrication tools which is important for ICT in my point of view. And the recycling. Recycling you have to create the ore at the moment. Only 8% of the smarts are back to the recycling area in Belgium.
17:41
And I'm sure that you know that because if you go home, you go into the desk where you compile all the smart phone, all the things. So if you have a recycle area quite high, 90% each cycle you lost 10%.
18:06
First cycle, second cycle you have 90% of 90%, third cycle 90% of 81% and so on. At the seventh cycle you need less than half of the material you have at the beginning.
18:23
Simple. And for a smart phone you have a lot, a large variety, but various quantities. This is quantities in grams. This column is in fact the other, just over there.
18:43
This is in milligrams. And this column is the other, just over there. This is in milligrams, but a few milligrams. So you have a lot of raw materials, but they are diversified and in various quantities which is difficult to recycle.
19:01
Each metallurgist directly can stop that. It will be difficult to recycle antimony for instance. So you have to supply the loop. Each circular economy you have to supply the loop.
19:20
Because the loop without nothing, recycle, nothing. In mining. And you know the IPCC, this is well known for two decades. It also exists ER panel.
19:42
And this ER panel mentions that for a sustainable scenario with 2 degrees Celsius more than the moment, in 60, you will extract not 92 billion tons, but this. And business as usual means this. This is not my way.
20:08
This is ERP report. And this is especially true for metals now. Sustainability.
20:24
But mainly for non-metallic minerals with more than a large increase for non-metals. So where to find it in asteroids? 92 billion tons. A lot of shuttles to take a few grams for each shuttle.
20:47
It will take a lot of shuttles for 92 billion tons. Within the ocean there are a lot of prospections for two decades at least to take this kind of polymetallic nodules.
21:04
This generates a lot of impact for the benthic flora and fauna of course. In European areas Antarctica is well known for geologists and well known by geologists for these flags including Belgium.
21:29
So you have to take the loop into the earth deeper with larger volumes and lower grades. I'm not sure. This is easy to understand of course.
21:41
So to avoid transport, to reduce the dependency to raw material and to take the European citizen involved, some suggest that we have to mine locally in Western Europe. Imagine that. Imagine that now you will have a new mine close to your home.
22:09
And there are a lot of resources in Europe. Including in Belgium. Two points. A lot of them in France. These black points are lithium in Portugal. Including in Belgium. So I did an analysis in my garden.
22:29
A lot of money maybe. And there is neodymium in my garden. This is true. But this is 0.0027. The energy I have to transform this, the techniques I have to produce to transform this, is large. Very large.
22:53
So I have to have a look elsewhere. Belgium is very complicated for the Belgians because this is a region.
23:04
A country with a lot of regions. Three regions. Wallonia and Flanders. And in Wallonia, because it depends on Wallonia, you have a lot of potential resources. And this is an old district of lead and zinc, producing a lot of zinc and a lot of lead in the past.
23:25
So we can suggest this. What about the prospections in this old district? But this is a similar way for other countries. Mainly in France, Italy, Portugal for regions. This is at the moment the case.
23:42
This is of course for lead and zinc, but this is well known that this is for new metals, gallium, germanium, indium. Very useful for the ICT. So if you have a meeting with the citizens and the local residents, it's of course not possible at all to have a new quarry mine in Belgium.
24:06
Because you know this. Of course. And it is probably the same if you ask to me, what about a new mine just close to your garden?
24:22
It's difficult for me to understand it. With a lot of reasons. First, what the meaning for a citizen is that? It pollutes, it smells, it makes noise, it's not friendly. It destroys the flora and the fauna for the citizen.
24:40
This is the words I have when I ask to people, what about the mine for you? What about the quarry for you? This is this. Did it increase the cartage? This is true. It destroyed the landscape during the mining and you have a lot of topics here which are not geology.
25:04
Not geology at all. It destroyed the landscape after the mining. It is a question of big money. It is dangerous for workers. This is a picture in the States. I have the picture in Wallonia. This is not so impressive, but it exists.
25:24
It is dangerous for workers. It has been popularized for the last decade at least. It is a stress for the citizen due to potential economic shortage. Not possible to reach this. It is a geological lingo. It is impossible to understand the first slide of the teaching in raw material.
25:49
It is a geopolitical stress. This is well known from February this year. You can see that the eighth producer of iron of the world was Ukraine.
26:14
China is the main country processing the ore and some countries are the leader for the extraction of these ores.
26:29
Not at all the European Union of course. For Belgian people this is a question in the mind of a lot of sociological aspects for Belgian people, at least northern French people also.
26:44
This is the case also in Wales in the United Kingdom with a lot of immigration, Germany now this is a book in French and so on. So the citizen says what about sustainable development? I stopped the fossil fuels and then the World Bank published this report.
27:05
What about the low carbon new technologies? It will require a lot of new material. The crowd will limit the order of land management. This is against recycling and this is against our relation with nature.
27:26
So many thanks because I had to propose a first view, the state of the art and you will receive the solution now. This is not my topic. I'm not able to provide solution to this. But this is the case for Olivier.
27:52
Good morning everyone. I need to switch the computer. During the presentation, while I do that I would like to thank Paul who lent
28:03
me a battery because of course I forgot to take a battery for the pointer. So thank you very much. Quick question first of all. Who is based in Belgium?
28:23
Okay, in Europe? Okay and outside Europe? Okay. Just to have a quick idea of the interest that you may have for the Belgian Institute for Sustainable IT. Why do we talk about sustainable IT? Well you've heard about the mining. I'll come back to that.
28:40
But one of the things that we start hearing quite recently in the media is that IT emits more greenhouse gas emissions than the airline industry. Something that was completely unknown until recently and we used to be told to take less planes, less cars et cetera and never think about the uses that we make of IT.
29:02
Actually you've seen for the metals et cetera but there's lots of pollution that arise because of the extraction, because of the manufacturing of our equipment and also because of the waste that our equipment creates. And also quite a lot of social impacts. You've seen the extraction, the working condition in
29:22
the extraction but also working condition in the manufacturing industries to create and manufacture our equipment. And then in the use phase there's actually several types of impacts. It can be problems of accessibility, inclusion, it can be problems of addiction, all different types of social problems.
29:43
And then again living conditions on the dumps, land fields where our equipment end up. Unfortunately the vast majority of our equipment ends up in land fields despite all the collection and supposedly recycling.
30:02
Just to tell you, Interpol estimates that more than 60% of our equipment ends up in land fields in traffic and Greenpeace estimates that it's 90%. So the truth must be somewhere between 60 and 90% of our equipment going into land fields.
30:20
What we try to do is to translate sustainable development terms from people planet prosperity into IT actions. And the first one is about green IT, how to reduce the footprint of IT itself. The second one is about IT for green, how can we maximize the environmental benefits that IT can bring.
30:40
And then the same question from a social perspective, how can we reduce all the problems related to ethics, artificial intelligence etc. But also how can we create services that really help human society at large. So what we did is that in France we created an institute in 2019, in 2020 in Belgium and 2021 in Switzerland and we hope to open other countries.
31:09
And we have a good mix of different types of organizations, big companies, very small ones, associations, public, administrations etc. And very briefly in Belgium for those of you who are based in Belgium you see that we have that good mix also universities, high schools etc.
31:23
The idea of the association is to bring all these actors together so that we can think and create content depending on the type of topics. So it will be transversal for example if we talk about infrastructure, artificial intelligence, blockchain etc. Or it can be very specific how to manage a big company or to manage a small SME or public service.
31:46
So we have plenty of working groups, a forum etc. Coming back to the impact, so you've seen already all the mining etc. Actually there's several types of impact, so abiotic resources that's mainly linked to metal.
32:01
There's the electricity consumption, water, greenhouse gas and energy over the whole life cycle. And in terms of pollution the source could be the user equipment, so your smart phone, smart watch, security camera at home whatever. The networks, 4G, 5G, 3G, Wi-Fi etc. And all these to connect to the data centers.
32:27
Which one do you think is the biggest polluter? Is it data center, network or user equipment? Data center, okay. Networks? Not many. User equipment?
32:43
Not bad, there seems to be a small majority on user equipment. It's actually that. Most of the time people think it's data centers, I must tell you, in the different conferences that I make. And you can see that actually the biggest number is there, 75% of abiotic resources compared to the much lower number.
33:01
This is simply linked to the number of equipment that we have. A bit less than 100 million servers, 60 to 70 million servers in the data centers in the world. A bit more than 1 billion devices for network. Around 44 billion user equipment.
33:24
So the vast amount, the massive amount of devices that we have and that we continue to manufacture and that we replace very very quickly. Smartphones for example have an average lifetime of 2 years roughly. We replace so quickly that we need to continuously manufacture new equipment.
33:43
And so it's really through the user equipment actually that we can make the biggest savings. In terms of being more environmentally friendly, it's about extending the lifetime of our equipment. And that can be done through different ways that I'll briefly talk about. And it's not just us telling that. If you look at the statistics that Apple publishes for example for a smartphone.
34:06
Over the whole life cycle of the smartphone it emits 72 kilograms of carbon emissions. And also by the way it's really for a smartphone of something like 120 gram requires roughly 200 kilos of rock.
34:24
As Johan already explained a bit. And if you look at the life cycle, 79 so almost 80% comes from the production of the equipment. 80% that means that when you buy your smartphone before you switch it on you already have emitted 60 kilograms of carbon emissions.
34:49
And only the rest will come later. When you see transport that includes for example the packaging. If you are told that your smartphone is really green because the packaging is fully recycled etc.
35:02
It's not the case at all unfortunately. And then the rest comes into the usage phase in terms of impact. And all this because of the extraction as you've seen. There's roughly 60 different types of materials in a smartphone. And only 17 of them can be recycled today for economical and physical reasons.
35:24
They are not in all cases recycled but it's the limit that you may call told us that they can recycle today. So you see that as Johan already mentioned there's a lot of loss every time we try to recycle a smartphone. So really the solution is to extend the lifetime of the equipment.
35:45
And when we manufacture equipment it has an impact in terms of pollution. We are told for years already that our greenhouse gas emissions are decreasing in countries like Belgium and France etc. But actually when you take into account the imported equipment that we have it's increasing year by year.
36:03
And this is something that we are not told so much. And if you think about IT all the devices, almost all the devices that we have except some sensors etc. But the vast majority are imported and so it means that we are exporting our pollution to the different countries. Unfortunately as you know there's no frontier for pollution.
36:24
In terms of usage the biggest impact, well the impact is related directly to data. Data that you transmit, data that you process etc. And the vast amount, the vast majority of the data relates to online video and other types of video. Here you've got the websites without their video, you've got your emails, you've got some file transfer etc.
36:46
So if you have been told that you will save the planet by deleting your old emails I can tell you it's not true. It helps but it's not true. The big thing that you can do in terms of usage is reduce the quantity of video, the quantity of pictures because these are the ones that are transmitting the biggest amount of data.
37:03
Video, it will reduce the quantity of Netflix, watch less Netflix, avoid big watching and if you are watching things like Netflix etc. Try to take a lower definition, don't take 4K or even HD if you can go for a lower definition.
37:22
It reduces the quantity of data that you are transmitting and that really helps a lot. Especially if you're on a smartphone or a tablet there's no point at watching it in 4K for sure. If you're watching pornography typically try to do it a bit faster, it will help as well. Then you've got tubes etc. Typically if you're watching YouTube, if you're listening to
37:44
music with YouTube, take Spotify instead because you don't have the image going along. So there's small things that you can do in terms of usage but there's a lot that can be done also from an application point of view, we'll see that. But video is really very impactful. Before COVID in 2018, the orange part that you see there emitted 306 million tons of CO2.
38:07
That's an equivalent of 306 million passengers flying Brussels to New York. It's not a small amount. Of course it increased massively with the COVID crisis, everyone was home either playing games or watching Netflix or trying to pretend that they are working online.
38:24
If they are working online then they are in that category with the Zoom and Teams etc. also increasing. So what can companies do, what can organizations do, cities, any organization can do and why should they act? Well first of all there's really a lot that you can do in terms
38:42
of reducing your footprint, acting for inclusivity and accessibility, I'll show a short example. For companies the CSR strategy is something usually very important in paper but it's something where you can act truly in all the IT teams as well. And then it brings cost reduction, risk reduction, you can get prepared for new regulations that are being prepared at the moment.
39:07
I don't know if some of you or any of you suffered a bit from GDPR, actually we could go in the same direction with EcoDesign. So for companies that were not ready for GDPR it meant a lot of sudden additional development that needed to be done to protect data etc.
39:25
I was in a company that was already very good for that, very fortunately, and so we were able during that implementation of GDPR to catch up our competition and go above and beyond our competition thanks to the fact that we were ready for GDPR regulations.
39:41
So that was pretty good and it could be the same today for environmental perspective and social ones in IT. Typically I just mentioned GDPR, what we see coming are regulations at European level, at country level, around eco design of applications and equipment.
40:03
Also about typically greenwashing, how to avoid greenwashing in IT and then all the aspects about accessibility. And you may think it's something that is only for IT, but actually everyone has got a role to play in the organisation. It will be about communicating internally and externally about your initiative, but mainly the first thing that marketing will do is they are
40:24
the ones who request to IT what to put on a website, it's not IT who decides what to put on a website. If the marketing tells you that you have to put a 4K video on the homepage of your website with an automatic start etc, you can't change that unless you really convince them, so they need to be involved.
40:42
You can involve your purchasing department, finance department, of course management and then one which becomes more and more interesting is risk management department. More and more they start realising that unsustainability is a vulnerability for the organisation and so we have working groups specific on that, especially with insurances, banks etc.
41:00
Also governments start to look at that aspect, typically also related to the availability of the metals as Johan mentioned. So the areas of actions, we will work first and foremost on equipment, end user equipment, equipment in data centre etc. And for that it's all related to buying less, requiring less capacity actually, so we'll see how to
41:27
minimise the requirement but also how to keep longer, how to maintain the equipment, how to give a second life to the equipment because we've seen that the recycling and the end of life unfortunately will not work. In terms of digital use, we still can of course inform our users to reduce the
41:46
quantity of emails, the quantity of files that they transfer etc, it's something good for sure. How to reduce the quantity of data, depending on how you use collaborative tools for example, there are many things that can be done. But the biggest thing that we can do as IT professionals is about eco-designing the applications.
42:03
And eco-designing, the first question that you will ask yourself is actually what can I avoid to develop? Because when you look at the statistics about how many percents of the functionalities in an application are actually used, they are very very low. So it's all about agile practice, it's develop your MVP and then increase slowly and surely but stop when you don't need to develop anymore.
42:29
That helps you also in terms of maintenance, technical depth etc, but mainly it will require less computing capacity. So you will be looking at writing better code, anyone can tell me why I've got this picture of the LEM next to the code, any idea?
42:53
The quantity of code, actually because of the quantity of memory available, the quantity of code that was in the computer running the LEM is 70 kilobytes, that's roughly an email today without an attachment.
43:07
Of course we are not trying to aim to that, but you can easily avoid for example very large libraries or automatic code generation etc. That helps you to reduce the bandwidth needs, that helps you to divide really, these numbers
43:20
are divisions in terms of number of servers required per user to run the same service. It helps you to extend the lifetime of the equipment of your end user, let's say for example that you would develop an application that would run, so you have a web banking application let's say. And you say I want a new feature, but that new feature, I'm doing something completely stupid and extreme here, but it would only run on 5G.
43:44
Then I upgrade my whole application to 5G, it means that all your users will need to upgrade their smartphone to 5G. If you say okay, that new feature I cannot do without 5G, but all the rest of my web banking still can run on 4G, you create an application that has both of these and just the functionality
44:02
requiring 5G, you launch that and only the user that really required that functionality will need to upgrade their smartphone. It's an extreme example, but actually it works the other way around with all the upgrades of Android and iOS etc. If you are able to support all the versions, you allow your users to keep their smartphone longer and for many of them it's
44:22
not just a question of willing or not to buy a smartphone, some of them simply don't have enough money to buy new smartphones anymore. So it's a question of actually having more clients in the end if you are able to support more systems also, more clients simply because you look at their potential handicaps. If you look at for example older people, one person out of four, sorry, for people above 65 years of age, one person of four is handicapped.
44:53
In the world and all ages included, one person in seven is handicapped. If you don't take into account the handicaps, you may cut yourself from a large base of clients or citizens.
45:04
And of course for companies, that's all elements that help in terms of business growth. And you have different tools that you can use to assess whether you are roughly eco-designed or not, that's just the website of the event here, 64%. If you are accessible or not, this one is pretty good, only four errors and eight contrast errors, that's very low.
45:26
These are only small tools to give you a hint, but experts can go much, much further than that. And handicaps, just to give you an idea, if we look at color blindness for example, if you are giving that kind of graph for someone who is color blind, good luck to read it.
45:43
Let's say that you use that internally with your colleagues or with your boss for example to ask for a salary increase and you show him this and he's color blind, he will potentially see it like that or completely grey or anything. 8% of men are color blind, 1 in 12 men is color blind. Only 0.5% of women, but 8% of men, that's massive.
46:06
So if you create something slightly different, suddenly it becomes accessible. It's not just for websites, it's for all your daily usage of IT to communicate with your colleagues as well. So very briefly to finish, if you want resources we've got on our website, we've got links to different tools, MOOCs, guides, etc.
46:29
Unfortunately not all of the guides are available in English yet because we have a big collaboration with the French government and they are a bit slower to translate to English. We propose the membership, we propose a charter and we have an annual signing ceremony for the charter and we propose a label as well.
46:50
To become a member, take part in our working groups, etc. to get the training. The charter is independent, you can just sign the charter without being a member and this is about a moral commitment of your organization to go towards more sustainability in IT,
47:06
all the aspects about for example men and women in IT also being equal, etc. And then if you want to go further there's the possibility to pass a label, the three are independent, but of course you are encouraged to take the three of them.
47:21
What to remember, buy less equipment, buy refurbished if you can, give a second life to your equipment and only as a last resort recycle but make sure that it does not stay in your cupboard. The booklet there, the electronic, is just to give you an idea, if you buy an electronic book reader it's roughly equivalent to 68 books per year that you would need to buy.
47:45
So you can ask yourself the question, do I need the electronic version or is the paper quite interesting still? Data, reduce the video streaming, I've already mentioned, also avoid watching video on 4G or 3G if you can download the video before leaving when you are still on the Wi-Fi connection
48:04
and as mentioned use something like Spotify rather than YouTube if it's only for music. And then still useless emails, it's not so much about deleting emails, it's about avoiding sending emails first and foremost and avoiding file transfer in the emails. Use other platforms like Swiss Transfer, WeTransfer, etc.
48:25
And just one last thing, this one I quite like, if you need to print something from a website use that, printwhatyoulike.com It helps you select the elements that you want from a page and only print some of the elements and not all the publicity, etc. Very small and easy tool to use on a daily basis for the guys who like to print.
48:45
And that's it for me. Thank you.