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Digital transformation has an elephant in the room: the energy use of digital services can be enormous. In 2024, the World Bank estimated the internet to account for 1-4% of global greenhouse emissions, similar to aviation. The good news is: there are many opportunities to improve. As UX practitioners, we can reduce emissions at work.

In this talk, we’ll look at what the W3C’s new Web Sustainability Guideline are and how to apply them in practice. The session is aimed at ambitious UX practitioners, who want to learn more about centering people, planet and prosperity.

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UTURE OFFUT n e e r g E OFGOVERE O S I X U F O E R THE FUTU Hidde de Vries, UX London, 3 June 2026

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⽩ G Most of the world’s population v. X

→ C

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/22/89-percent-project-climate-change О т ⼭ The Guardian Eurv News Op in io n Sport Culture Li fe sty le Wo r l dU KClimatec r i s i sU k r a i n eE n v i r o n m e n tS c i e n c eGlobald e v e l o p m e n tF o o t b a l lT e c hB u s i n e s sObituaries The 89% project T h e Guardian Most of the world’s population wants stronger climate action. They just don’t realize that they are a majority The Guardian is joining forces with dozens of newsrooms around the world to launch a year-long exploration of the ‘silent majority’ of people who want to fight climate change Tue 2 2 Apr 2025 07.35 CEST < Share The 8 9Percent

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Yes, we’re all somewhat hypocritical. And…

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We can make the world greener

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We can make the world greener faster at work

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ICT emissions > aviation emissions

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“If the internet was a country it th would be the 13 largest emitter between Mexico and Brazil” – Sustainable Web Manifesto (based on CO2 emissions in Our World in Data vs IT emissions data from Green Web Foundation)

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Website Carbon Rating Scale based on Grams CO2e per pageview websitecarbon.com/introducing-the-website-carbon-rating-system

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websitecarbon.com

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SWDM Data transfer Amount of GB transferred when using a service Sustainable Web Design Model Average Emissions per Page View (gCO2e) = ([(OPDC × (1 - Green Hosting Factor) + EMDC) + (OPN + EMN) + (OPUD + EMUD)] × New Visitor Ratio) + ([(OPDC × (1 - Green Hosting Factor) + EMDC) + (OPN + EMN) + (OPUD + EMUD)] × Return Visitor Ratio × (1 - Data Cache Ratio)) sustainablewebdesign.org/estimating-digital-emissions Carbon intensity Grams of carbon emitted per kWh at a given time.

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We can make the world greener faster at work

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t af Dr te No Web Sustainability Guidelines w3.org/TR/web-sustainability-guidelines

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t af Dr 100+ contributors 72 guidelines 225 success criteria w3.org/TR/web-sustainability-guidelines te No Developed at the World Wide Web Consortium

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User Experience Design Hosting, Infrastructure & Systems Web Development w3.org/TR/web-sustainability-guidelines Business Strategy & Product Management

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Data centres Emissions of server hardware (making and running) What adds to the footprint of the WWW? 10100101010 101010101010 101010101010 101010101010 101010101010 10100101010 Networks Data downloads/ uploads Consumer devices Manufacturing laptops, phones, tablets that access the web

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Elimination vs offsetting

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n o i t a n Elimination Elimi vs offsetting

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We can make the world greener faster at work

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Make smaller web pages

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Median website size is growing and growing… Data: HTTPArchive 2011 467 kB 2025 2678 kB

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Minimise images and videos

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A Dutch City Total page size: 1,2 MB

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A Dutch City Hero image: 367 KB (32%)

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“Detail is data” – Emily Trotter (Nomensa) on images in Planet Centred Design youtube.com/watch?v=znz-f_QEGnQ

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Ways to save images Blur or blur parts Remove some background Simplify image Use image compression

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<img src=”” alt=”” loading=”lazy” />

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Reduce assets (especially JavaScript)

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css-tricks.com/reduce-your-websites-environmental-impact-with-a-carbon-budget

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hidde.blog/the-web-is-fast-by-default-lets-keep-it-fast

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• 151 requests • 1.3 MB transferred • over 20 JavaScript files • pictures of palm trees hidde.blog/the-web-is-fast-by-default-lets-keep-it-fast

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What if we optimised for simplicity (radically)? • 2 KB • 0.2 seconds to load hidde.blog/the-web-is-fast-by-default-lets-keep-it-fast

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there is so much in between (this is also about attitude)

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The same website today. It’s even bigger.

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41KB

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13.2MB and yes, I accepted cookies, so the number includes ads

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website size is a choice

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As people in tech, for us a large part of this is a people problem

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WSG 5.2. Assign a sustainability representative

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Support older devices

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Product Environmental Report i P h o n e 14 P r o Date introduced September 7, 2022 M a d e with better materials Tackling climate change 100% 100% 100% recycled gold in the recycled rare earth wire of all cameras elements in all magnets We’re committed to transitioning our entire manufacturing supply chain to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030.

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sy focusing iPhone1 4 Pro ene wa ble life cycle carbon emissions a m helped 81% Production ation.4 Apple e down 3% 15% Transport Use <1% End-of-life processing

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sy focusing iPhone1 4 Pro enewable life cycle carbon emissions a m helped 8 1 % Production ation.4 Apple e down 3% 15% <1% Transport Use End-of-life processing

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Don’t be the reason users upgrade

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Dutch CoronaCheck app required Android 6+, iOS 12+ It made front page news.

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Dutch CoronaCheck app required Android 6+, iOS 12+ There was a paper fallback. QR code for travel

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Progressive enhancement Make functionality available in simpler ways before adding more complex ways.

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Progressive enhancement is a good green approach

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Choose green hosting

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Eemshaven, the Netherlands

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Middenmeer, the Netherlands 110 hectare / 271 acres

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International Energy Agency,

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International Energy Agency,

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Use or move to a green provider

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WSG 4.1. Choose a sustainable hosting provider

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Find out current state thegreenwebfoundation.org

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GWF lists 362 verified green hosting providers in 37 countries. Ask sales reps how theirs compares.

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Factors include: renewable energy equipment longevity waste recycling From: WSG, 4.1

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Carbon-aware design choices

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Carbon intensity How clean energy is at a given time 2 (eg CO /kWh)

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Our team

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Our team

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Our team Anna Mei Jacob Ouiam David George

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organicbasics Organic Sweat!

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Shop Women Shop M e n organicbasics Regular store LOWI infact website Sho p wom en S ho p m en Manifesto EUR D

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blog.google/company-news/outreach-and-initiatives/sustainability/carbon-aware-computing-location

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Only necessary features

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Avoid technology that has relatively large energy use

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AI

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I I s Al Profitable Yet? X

⼼凸 https://isaiprofitable.com L B ookmar ks I S AI PROFITABLE NO. YET? TRACKINGT H ES P E N DA N DREVENUEO F EVERYONE’S BROKE. FRONTIER A I COMPANIES (MAY 2 0 2 6 ) . $1.4T $613B $0 T O T A LI N D U S T R YS P E N D TOTAL I N D U S T R Y R E V E N U E $ S P E N T O N A I S I N C E PA G E LOAD

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International Energy Agency, Electricity 2024, Analysis and forecast to 2026.

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AI

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“Emissions would increase by 60× for a GPT-3 style model – Wim Vanderbauwhede wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/google-search-vs-chatgpt-emissions

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“Emissions would increase by 60× for a GPT-3 style model; for a GPT-4 style model, it could be 200×.” – Wim Vanderbauwhede wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/google-search-vs-chatgpt-emissions

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AI

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“DrillOps”

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“AGI”

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“AGI” • Not well defined • Not in existence • Not sure if it can solve global warming

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OpenAl Lo g in Yo u r s e a r c h global warming

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OpenAl Lo g in Yo u r s e a r c h global warming Summary It looks like your question goes beyond what we can assist with here. Advanced search is designed to help you find information on openai.com, such as our products, research, and updates. v Disclaimer: B e t a f e a t u r e i n testing. Learn m o r e

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Adding AI could mean magnitudes more emissions

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…so finding alternatives is green

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V PostNL maakte in 2025 toch win X D + → c + 8 https://www.volkskrant.nl/economie/postnl-maakte-in-2025-toch-winst-op-postbezorging-vooral ⼼ q 亥 出⼥ • J Bookmarks d e Volkskrant = Voorpagina Columns Opinie Cartoons Luister Cultuur &Media NIEUWS PostNL m a a k t e i n 2025 t o c h winst op postbezorging, vooral dankzij zakelijke post PostNL heeft vorig jaar op de postbezorging een kleine winst geboekt van 2miljoen euro. Dit kwam vooral door de groei van de zakelijke post in december. Het bedrijf gaat desalniettemin door met de juridische procedures tegen het kabinet, dat financiële steun heeft afgewezen. Foto Puzz.els

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Humans can add a summary into the CMS (especially journalists)

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Maybe let users opt-out of what’s carbon-intense

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WSG e h t e t a c i n u 5.4 Comm r e s u f o t c a p m i l a c i g o l eco choices

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You could give users choice Greener option !

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Always be looking for alternatives

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We can make the world greener faster at work

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There are opportunities to save emissions for us as UX designers

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Summary Make smaller web pages Support older devices Choose green hosting Carbon-aware design choices Only necessary features (AI has a toll)

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Thank you! Thanks to Alexander Dawson, Tantek Çelik, Rose Newell, Fershad Irani, Matijs Brinkhuis, Michelle Barker. Slides + links are live on hidde.blog/slides

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Links HTTP Archive Web Almanac 2024, Sustainability. https:// almanac.httparchive.org/en/2024/sustainability Green Software Foundation, https://learn.greensoftware.foundation/. GOV.UK, Greening Government Commitments ICT annual report 2023 to 2024, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greening-governmentict-annual-report-2023-to-2024/greening-government-commitments-ictannual-report-2023-to-2024

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Tools Ecograder, https://ecograder.com/. Are My Third Parties Green, https://aremythirdpartiesgreen.com/. Website Carbon, https://www.websitecarbon.com/.

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Books Gerry McGovern, World Wide Waste (2020). Anne Currie, Sarah Hsu, Sara Bergman, Building Green Software (2024). Tom Greenwood, Sustainable Web Design (2021). Tim Frick, Designing for Sustainability (2016).

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Technical specifications Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) Specification. https:// sci.greensoftware.foundation/. Digital Services Ecodesign ISO standard. https://www.iso.org/standard/ 86105.html Web Sustainability Guidelines. https://w3c.github.io/sustainableweb-wsg/

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Ecologi: emission reduction as a service

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European Commission: Europe’s Digital Decade: digital targets for 2030

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Danny van Kooten’s blog post “CO2 emissions on the web”

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From which I quoted: “Shaving off a single kilobyte in a file that is being loaded on 2 million websites reduces CO2 emissions by an estimated 2950 kg per month.”

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Info on how emissions are calculated.

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Fershad Irani’s talk “The Nuance of Quantifying Digital Carbon Emissions”

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Corporate report: Greening government ICT: annual report 2023 to 2024

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Annual report of the progress made in 2023 to 2024 towards making digital services and technologies in government more sustainable.

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ecograder.com: get a donut chart of how your site performs

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Blog post: The web is fast by default: let’s keep it fast

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Squoosh.app: simple no ads tool to make any images much smaller

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js;dr = JavaScript required; Didn’t Read.

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From which I got the quote: “In 10 years nothing you built today that depends on JS for the content will be available, visible, or archived anywhere on the web.””

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The Green Web Foundation: check if your host is green

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They have metrics for what “green” means, provide data and a tool to look up your domain right now.

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Electricity 2024, from the International Energy Agency

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from which I got the chart that showed energy usage could double.

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The Guardian: “Energy demands from AI datacentres to quadruple by 2030, says report”

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From which I got the quote that AI has the potential to reserve all the gains made in recent years.

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Paper: “From Efficiency Gains to Rebound Effects: The Problem of Jevons’ Paradox in AI’s Polarized Environmental Debat”

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By Alexandra Sasha Luccioni, Emma Strubell and Kate Crawford.

Compares the “AI to destroy all” camp with the “AI will save all” camp, and concludes, among other things, that we ‘cannot simply hope for the best outcome’.

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Emissions from ChatGPT are much higher than from conventional search

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AI crawlers vs sysadmins: “Amazon’s AI crawler is making my git server unstable”

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AI crawlers vs sysadmins: “Looks my server is doing 70% of all its work for LLM training bots”

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full quote: “it looks like my server is doing 70% of all its work for these fucking LLM training bots that don’t to anything except for crawling the fucking internet over and over again.“

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AI crawlers vs sysadmins: “Please stop externalizing your costs directly into my face”

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AI crawlers vs sysadmins: 50% growth on Wikimedia

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Full quote: “bandwidth used for downloading multimedia content [grew] by 50%. This increase is not coming from human readers, but largely from automated programs that scrape [Wikimedia] to feed images to AI models.”

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Green Software Practitioner Learning Guide

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The Linux Foundation’s free Green Software for Practitioners guide

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comes with an exam you can do at the end

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World Bank: Measuring the Emissions & Energy Footprint of the ICT Sector (PDF)