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Greening Digital �With Django

www.thegreenwebfoundation.org

Chris

Adams

2024.06.05

DjangoconEU 2024

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Hello, I’m Chris!

My background:

First started working with Django in 2008. My background is mainly in climate and open data startups and companies since then.��Loco2 - Low CO2 Travel in Europe by train

A.M.E.E (Avoid Mass Extinction Engine) - CO2 calculation as an API

Green Software Foundation - policy working group co-chair

Branch Magazine - contributor, co-founding editor

climateAction.tech - community organiser since 2018

Environment Variables podcast - host since 2022

Djangocon EU - various talks and workshops on this subject since 2017

Green Web Foundation - exec director, my full time job today

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Hi there, my name is Chris Adams - I’ve been part of the Django community shortly after I graduated from university was trying to figure out what do with my life.

Loco2.com is now raileurope.com - you can use it to book international train travel all around Europe

AMEE alas was bought.

Green Software Foundation is the industry body working to https://greensoftware.foundation/

Branch Magazine - more on that later - https://branch.climateaction.tech/

ClimateAction.tech - https://climateaction.tech

Environment variables podcast - https://podcast.greensoftware.foundation/

Green Web Foundation - https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/

Some previous talks:

Djangocon’s Eu 2021 Keynote - https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/events/djangocon-eu-2021/

Planet friendly web development with Django - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuCVqSN8nBM&t=39s

Greening Django - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upiK4du5vUI

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What we’ll cover

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How carbon emissions result from our use digital services, and why people are paying more attention
How they are measured and estimated, and common tools used to do so
Why Django is well placed to be the greenest framework out there.

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Accessing this deck

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This deck is online with a bajillion links, and presenter notes.

The QR code will visible on the last slide too.

https://bit.ly/djangocon-eu-2024-greening-digital

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The Green Web Foundation is working towards a fossil-free internet by 2030.

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The internet should be a global public good —healthy for the planet and for the people who use it.

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Build open source tools, APIs, and libraries

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https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/tools/

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Create prototypes.

Contribute to open source projects.

Publish open data.

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https://github.com/thegreenwebfoundation

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Collaborate with research institutions

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https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/publications/`

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Publish reports, magazines, guides about this field.

If you found this talk interesting, you’ll like Branch

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https://branch.climateAction.tech

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Talks.

Workshops.

Training.

Consulting.

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https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/services

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How digital causes emissions, and why measure it

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How do digital services cause emissions?

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Source: https://developers.thegreenwebfoundation.org/co2js/overview/

Datacentre usage

End user device usage

Network transfer

Production and disposal

Powering and cooling servers

Powering core networks, mobile networks,

on-premise wifi and fixed routers

Powering end user devices - laptops, workstations, smartphones and tablets

Energy usage from making all of the above - processing raw silicon and other raw materials into integrated circuits, batteries, metal casings, etc

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When we talk about digital services, what we might experience at our end might be playing a game, watching a video, or buying something on a device like a tablet or phone.

But in reality there’s a very complicated supply chain at work. When we use a service, we’re also relying on a network of always-on undersea cables, routers towers and so on, which connect to a one more datacentres, which are also usually running 24 / 7. This all takes energy, which for the most part mostly comes from fossil fuels. All these things use energy when they’re turned on, i.e. when they’re used. So we call them use-phase emissions - they’re the the stuff at the top.

However someone also needs to actually make all these devices we hold, as well as the buildings that contain the servers and so on. This is often very energy intensive and water intensive, in its own right. You can think of us as putting energy into the creation and of these things, so we usually called them embodied emissions

So we have two sources of emissions - using digital infrastructure, and making digital infrastructure

Link to more:

https://developers.thegreenwebfoundation.org/co2js/explainer/methodologies-for-calculating-website-carbon/

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Estimates vary, but between 2% and 4% of global carbon emissions is safe to use.

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How big is tech’s carbon footprint?

Source: https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/publications/report-fog-of-enactment/

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Credit: Photo by Skyler Smith on Unsplash

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Credit: Photo by Andy Li on Unsplash

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Instead, I’d suggest it’s better to think about this the way you think about shipping.

90% of the goods we buy come arrive by ship, and it has a comparable carbon footprint again between 2 and 3% of global emissions.

For most of us, shipping isn’t something we experience directly, but we know that it takes massive boats like this burning huge amounts of dirty fuel to power the global economy, and while we know that shipping makes things convenient, I don’t think many of us would say it’s clean.

Almost all of us rely on shipping, just like almost all of us rely on the internet, and if we want to keep using it, we need to find a way to clean it up.

In the world of shipping, it’s hard work, but we are seeing the biggest companies in the world figuring out how to run ships on cleaner fuels. See the blue ship there? Last year, the company behind it, Maersk announced the maiden voyage of it’s first container ship running on clean fuel that doesn’t from from fossil sources. So, we know it’s doable.

Source

https://supplychaindigital.com/sustainability/shipping-industry-proposes-new-measures-net-zero-2050

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/maersks-methanol-ship-makes-maiden-refuelling-rotterdam-2023-08-29/

Photo source:

Photo by Andy Li on Unsplash

https://unsplash.com/photos/CpsTAUPoScw

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The internet is the biggest machine in the world, and today, it mostly runs on fossil fuels.

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Source: https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/publications/report-fog-of-enactment/

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How does this affect me though?

(apart from the whole climate anxiety thing, obvs)

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New changes in the law are making firms care more about two things:

1. Climate Disclosure: what are my emissions?

2. Climate Response: what is my plan to reduce them?

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Driving Climate Disclosure

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“Show us you track emissions, and share this info with society”

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)

Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (CCDAA)

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Driving Climate Disclosure

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liberté�egalité�CSRDé

https://www.csofutures.com/news/in-france-corporate-directors-can-now-go-to-jail-for-not-complying-with-csrd/

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Purchased goods and services
Capital goods
Fuel- and energy-related activities (not included in scope 1 or scope 2)
Upstream transportation and distribution
Waste generated in operations
Business travel
Employee commuting
Upstream leased assets

Scope 3

Scope 1

Fuel combustion
Company vehicles
Fugitive emissions

Purchased electricity
Purchased cooling
Purchased heat
Purchased steam

Scope 2

Downstream transportation and distribution
Processing of sold products
Use of sold products
End-of-life treatment of sold products
Downstream leased assets 14. Franchises
Investments

Scope 3

Upstream

Directly reported

Downstream

GHG Protocol and Scoped Emissions Reporting

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How I remember the Greenhouse Gas Protocol

Greenhouse Gas Protocol:

Scope 1,

Scope 2,

Scope 3

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Emissions from burning fossil fuels to make hot coffee

Scope 1

Emissions from electricity generated on your behalf, to make coffee

Scope 2

Emissions from activity in your supply chain, so you can have coffee

Scope 3

Scoped emissions communicated through the medium of hot beverages

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Purchased goods and services
Capital goods
Fuel- and energy-related activities (not included in scope 1 or scope 2)
Upstream transportation and distribution
Waste generated in operations
Business travel
Employee commuting
Upstream leased assets

Scope 3

Scope 1

Fuel combustion
Company vehicles
Fugitive emissions

Purchased electricity
Purchased cooling
Purchased heat
Purchased steam

Scope 2

Downstream transportation and distribution
Processing of sold products
Use of sold products
End-of-life treatment of sold products
Downstream leased assets 14. Franchises
Investments

Scope 3

Upstream

Directly reported

Downstream

GHG Protocol and Scoped Emissions Reporting - if you sell to affected firms

You are here

And maybe here

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Driving Climate Response

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“Show us you have a plan informed by the science”

Corporate Supply Chain Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)

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Driving Climate Response

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“Show us you have a plan informed by the science”

https://normative.io/insight/csddd/

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Key takeaways.

1. Climate Disclosure: what are my emissions?

2. Climate Response: what is my plan to reduce them?�3. Digital has an impact too: we will�need to be able to answer questions �about it when asked

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How people estimate carbon emissions for digital

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All models are wrong, some models are useful.

GEORGE BOX

Empirical Model-Building and Response Surfaces, 1987

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“

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Usage based

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Billing based

Estimate emissions based on observed usage of one or more parts of a system.

Estimate emissions based on observed spend. Turn billing into emissions data.

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Usage based

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Component view

System view

Global view

Billing based

“Native”

3rd party

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Usage based

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Component view

System view

Global view

Instrument a single part of the system.��Self report own impact.

See impact of focussed changes.

Composable into bigger systems.

Instrument components in a system.

�Report at a system or service level.

Figure out where to focus efforts for things in production.

See impact of different configurations or usage scenarios

Use data from a single component to model your share of the global impact of digital

Very easy to start out with, but assumptions in models may not match your context.

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Usage based

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Component view

System view

Global view

Firefox profiler:

Javascript, browser reports own energy / carbon use. �

Code Carbon:

Python, often used for AI, can wrap existing python code

Scaphandre:

Rust, gives server-side per process figures

Green Metrics Tool:

Python, simulates common usage scenarios

Greenframe

Proprietary, javascript. Simulates common usage scenarios

KEPLER

Kubernetes focussed, uses production telemetry data, growing corporate support

Website Carbon

Javascript, proprietary

Ecograder

Javascript, open source

Sitespeed.io

Javascript, used by Wikipedia, has own grafana dashboards

Webpage Test Carbon Control

php + js, available as hosted service

An incomplete list:

(All use sustainable web model under the hood))

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Billing based

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Native

Third party

Consumes billing data about service, region, quantity.

Direct access to hardware.

Applies proprietary conversions to turn purchased capacity into carbon dioxide equivalents.

Each provider has a different, incompatible proprietary methodology.

Largely consumes same billing data as native.��Less access to hardware.

Uses external model to enrich billing data with environmental figures.

More consistent across cloud providers (if supported)

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Billing based

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Native

Third party

Microsoft Emissions Impact Dashboard

Scopes 1, 2 and 3

AWS Customer Carbon Footprint Tool

Scopes 1, 2 (no scope 3)

Google Cloud Carbon Footprint

Scopes 1, 2 and 3

OVH

Scopes 1, 2 and 3, also water usage 👍

Cloud Carbon Footprint

Scopes 1,2 3 - first “significant” open source project

OpenCost

Recently merged PR now adds carbon costs to dashboards.

Green Pixie (proprietary)

Originally based on CCF, available as hosted service. Now offers richer data than just carbon.

(And more, each day)

An incomplete list:

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Key takeaways.

You probably would start with billing based tools for climate disclosure.

�You would use usage based �tools for climate response.

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What these tools look like

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Usage based

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Component view

System view

Global view

Firefox profiler

Javascript, reports measured browser energy

Code Carbon

Python, server side, often used for AI

Scaphandre

Rust, gives server-side per process figures

Green Metrics Tool

Python, simulates common usage scenarios

Greenframe

Proprietary, javascript simulates common usage scenarios

KEPLER

Kubernetes, uses production telemetry data for “real time” figures

Website Carbon

Javascript, proprietary

Ecograder

Javascript, open (?)

Sitespeed.io

Javascript

Webpage Test Carbon Control

php + js, available as hosted service

An incomplete list:

(All use sustainable web design model under the hood))

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Understanding how these work

Website carbon estimation tools are usage based, global view

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Component view

System view

Global view

Billing based

“Native”

3rd party

Usage based

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Who has used a website carbon calculator before?

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Website Carbon by Wholegrain Digital

Uses:

Sustainable Web Design with Green Web Dataset

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WebPageTest by Catchpoint

Uses:

Sustainable Web Design through CO2.js and Green Web Dataset

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An intro to CO2.js

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An open-source JavaScript library that enables developers to estimate the emissions related to use of their apps, websites, and software.

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Who’s using CO2.js today?

WebPageTest
Mozilla Firefox Profiler
Ecograder
Sitespeed
Datavizta (by Boavizta)
… and many more

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What can you do with CO2.js?

Use peer reviewed models for calculating carbon from usage.
Access open grid intensity data by country.
Check if a website is hosted green using the Green Web Dataset.

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How do they use it?

WebPageTest Carbon Control

Programming language: �PHP

Code: �GitHub

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How do they use it?

Mozilla Firefox Profiler

Programming language: �JavaScript

Code: �GitHub

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Green Metrics Tool Full stack measurements

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Green Metrics Tool (GMT) - what is it?

GMT is a usage based, system view tool, that creates a system under test, then simulates common interactions

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Component view

System view

Global view

Billing based

“Native”

3rd party

Usage based

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How GMT works at very high level

Use docker to set up a system, and record metrics from “the outside”

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What can you do with GMT?

Try different usage scenarios for your service - static vs dynamic, different page designs, etc.

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https://www.green-coding.io/case-studies/wordpress-vs-hugo-cloudflare/

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Applying this to django - what you need

If you have a dockerised app, you’re halfway there to trying it out.

If you have any integration tests that drive a browser, you have a head start on usage scenarios too

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Django app

Postgres

Browser

docker-compose.yaml

Redis

usage_scenario.yaml

+

scripts to drive the browser

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Learning from a real example - Wagtail and the bakery

Last year on the Wagtail GSoC project: used GMT to test common scenarios on the bakery demo site

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Learning from a real example - entire lifecycle

Seeing the output for by scenario

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Learning from a real example - specific scenarios

Seeing where and when the impact lies for each scenario

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Learning from a real example - putting the SCI in CI

Tracking Software Carbon Intensity in Continuous Integration

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Learning from a real example

Figuring out what to do next.

�(This is roadmap is entirely open source, and full of cool things you can contribute to in the sprint days)

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Code Carbon: Pythonic Server-side

carbon stats

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Code Carbon: what is it?

CodeCarbon is a usage based, component view tool for measuring the carbon, for python code

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Component view

System view

Global view

Billing based

“Native”

3rd party

Usage based

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How to start with it

Most common library used in AI papers for tracking carbon for training runs.��Also provides context managers and decorators 💚

from codecarbon import EmissionsTracker

�tracker = EmissionsTracker()

tracker.start()

�try:

# Compute intensive code goes here

_ = 1 + 1

finally:

tracker.stop()

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Why Django is well placed to be the greenest framework out there

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Why is Django well placed to lead in greening digital?

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Versatility of the framework - very wide range of use cases at different scales.
Mature, pragmatic community - well-run open source projects sharing knowledge, collaborating with others. Python might not be fast, but it is productive and can call fast code.
Long history of experience and expertise - the first online carbon calculators were built with Django in 2007 (!), we have active community members who know climate and energy really well
Green is literally the most prominent colour on the django website: duh.

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Thanks!�I’ll be at the sprints, and this deck is online.

bit.ly/djangocon-eu-2024-greening-digital

chris@greenweb.org

www.linkedin.com/in/mrchrisadams

mastodon.social/@mrchrisadams�

climateAction.tech - a friendly community of climate-minded tech workers

podcast.greensoftware.foundation - me interviewing experts in this field�branch.climateAction.tech - an online magazine all about this stuff��P.S. Come to my workshop on Friday to level up in Greening Digital with Django

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