I originally wrote the following in June 2010, and it still feels relevant today. While there have been some pledges for carbon-neutral server centers and similar initiatives, there hasn't been much conversation on this topic since then. Given the increasing ubiquity of network-enabled devices, this discussion should be as topical as ever. What is consumption if we don't recognize that we are consuming? With advances in the harvesting and use of byproduct energy, perhaps we will begin to see a shift.
Greenpeace’s recent attention to data centers has prompted some reflection, leading to a significant realization: we are progressively abstracting our consumption.
Looking back at our recent history, we can find analogies. We have abstracted how we obtain food, shifting from hunting and gathering to the efficiencies of commercialized agriculture, and now simply acquiring rather than seeking food. Through industrialization, products became mass-produced, distancing us from the production process. Most recently, we've moved the production of food and tools overseas, further removing our geographic ties to the things we consume in order to get them made “better,” faster, and cheaper.
While there's a domestic (American) movement towards going back to basics – desiring a role in the development and cultivation of physical goods we consume like food, furniture, and objects – we're increasingly reliant on less tangible things like network-based services. These services depend on data centers that consume enormous amounts of energy ( the EPA’s already addressing this). Since these services are ephemeral and abstract at their core, they are becoming more and more removed from us, making it difficult to understand the extent of our consumption. We're conscious of the origins of our goods, preferring them to be sustainable, not made of plastic, locally sourced, etc. We're visibly conscious of what we buy, eat, and do – from the type of car we drive to our efforts to protect the planet. Yet, we're developing patterns of consuming technology in a way that's extremely wasteful, though often invisible to us.
So, how do we address this? Do we educate on the practical underpinnings of technological advancements in the same way we've been educated that plastic is bad and local is good? As product designers, we were tasked with addressing “sustainability” long before the term was part of the public vernacular. Is it now our responsibility to address this new form of consumption to design more responsible behavior into our products?
Note: There have been some interesting advancements in this space, such as Google’s goal to recycle a majority of the water used in their data centers.