Digital technologies and the environment

A growing body of research has exposed another dimension to the complex challenge(s) of climate change: digital technologies. The production of digital technologies and services, the consumption of data, and the processing of electronic waste all carry serious costs for Earth’s biophysical systems. In fact, the annual carbon footprint of global data centres alone has now surpassed that of the airline industry, and some experts have suggested that demand is likely to triple in the coming decade.

I'd like to organise a workshop around the environmental cost of computing. It's a really important (and often ignored) aspect of computing, and we could approach it from a lot of different angles. For example, we could learn about lifecycle analysis and the 'circular economy'. Or e-waste and repair/recycling. Or how to calculate the carbon cost of, say, tweets and laptops and other technologies we use in HCI. Or we could have a broader workshop about how climate change is linked to health and wellness (a big topic in HCI). Really, we have a lot of options. What would you be most interested in?