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Why sustainable digital research matters


Figure 1

Picture showing some challenges of environmental sustainability, including greenhouse gas emissions, potable water usage, waste and pollution, and loss of biodiversity, among others
Placeholder image - Challenges of environmental sustainability

Figure 2

TBC
Placeholder image - Mindful computing and what it means for different people (use Rae’s interpretation of the following paragraph)

Energy, power and carbon


Figure 1

Three graphs showing the relationship between the electricity demand, energy mix and carbon intensity of the UK power grid over the course of a day.
Electricity demand, energy mix and carbon intensity of the UK power grid as on 12/01/2026

Figure 2

Energy generation mix pie chart on a sunny day in London
Energy generation mix pie chart on a sunny day in London obtained from https://carbonintensity.org.uk/

Figure 3

A graph showing the daily carbon intensity of the UK power grid during 2025. The mean, maximum and minimum values for each day are shown.
Carbon intensity of the UK power grid during 2025

Figure 4

Placeholder - GHG Emissions Types.
PLACEHOLDER

Digital research activities with sustainability issues


Figure 1

Person thinking on different aspects of digital infrastructure that produce carbon emissions, showing computers, storage devices, data centres and the research activity itself.
Placeholder image - What components of digital infrastructure produce carbon emissions? (Image by Rae)

Figure 2

Product Carbon Footprint report for HP EliteBook 840 G9.
Product Carbon Footprint for HP EliteBook 840 G9

Figure 3

A screenshot of the Green Algorithms Calculator webpage showing an example calculation and the result carbon emissions.
Screenshot of the Green Algorithms Calculator

Figure 4

Timeline with the history of digital storage media showing: punchcards (1881), magnetic tape (1950), removable hard drives (1963), floppy discs (1971), CD-ROM (1983), SD Cards (1999), USB drives (2000) and cloud (2013).
History of digital storage media. Image from the blog post “Data storage through history”

Figure 5

Google Data Center PUE measurement boundaries.
Google Data Center PUE measurement boundaries

Figure 6

Cartoon showing a datacenter as a monster demanding more power.
Data centers consume huge amounts of energy and water, which can be a risk for the environment. Image originally published at The Seattle Times.

Introduction to the Case Studies


Case Study 1 - Research Software Engineer


Figure 1

A bar chart comparing the emissions from Software Development, GitHub Actions, LLM usage and Software usage before and after implementation of emissions reduction measures
Carbon emissions for different research actions comparing pre- and post-intervention

Case Study 2 - Lab Scientist doing computational work


Figure 1

A bar chart comparing the emissions from data storage, LLM usage and data processing before and after implementation of emissions reduction measures
Carbon emissions for different research actions comparing pre- and post-intervention

Case Study 3 - HPC User


Figure 1

A bar chart comparing the emissions from DRAGONFLY and LANCER before and after implementation of emissions reduction measures
Carbon emissions from each cluter comparing pre- and post-intervention

Case Study 4 - GPU Computing User


Summary