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Submissions/Going green: How we can reduce the environmental impact of Wikipedia

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This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2017.


Info

This is a Completed submission for Wikimania 2017 ready to be reviewed by a member of the Programme Committee.

Submission no. 3004 Subject - TO
Title of the submission
Going green: How we can reduce the environmental impact of Wikipedia
Type of submission (lecture, panel, tutorial/workshop, roundtable discussion, lightning talk, poster, birds of a feather discussion)
lecture
Author of the submission
Lukas Mezger (Gnom)
Language of presentation
English
E-mail address
lukas.mezger@wikipedia.de
Username
Gnom
Country of origin
Germany
Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)
–
Personal homepage or blog
Sustainability Initiative
Abstract (up to 300 words to describe your proposal)
The logo of the Wikimedia Sustainability Initiative.

The environmental impact of Wikipedia is bigger than most people think. Running one of the most popular websites in the world, the Wikimedia movement has a significant carbon footprint: Today, only one of the Wikimedia Foundation's data centers is powered by renewable energy and 81% of Wikipedia's energy still comes from coal, gas, and nuclear power.

In 2015, Wikimedia received a "D" score in a report issued by Greenpeace, only receiving a passing grade because of its high energy transparency. Commercial services such as Yahoo or Apple scored far better, and Google is planning to power all of its operations with renewable energy in the course of 2017.

With its powerful brand, the Wikimedia movement can also show green leadership in the online sector even though it does not have a massive electricity load compared to other high-traffic sites like Google or Facebook.

Following the Greenpeace report, a few community members founded the Wikimedia Sustainability Initiative to reduce the environmental impact of the Wikimedia movement. After more than 200 Wikipedians expressed their support of the initiative, the board of the Wikimedia Foundation adopted a resolution to minimize the Foundation's overall impact on the environment in March 2017, and discussions are now under way to implement it into the Wikimedia Foundation's policies.

What will attendees take away from this session?

This talk will address the following points:

  1. An analysis of the current situation: How badly are we doing today? How much energy is actually used in the Wikimedia movement? What is the current Wikimedia Foundation policy for energy consumption?
  2. An explanation of the resolution of the Wikimedia Foundation's board of trustees and its implications for a possible green energy roadmap for the Foundation's operations.
  3. A discussion of a possible green investment strategy for the Wikimedia Foundation's endowment: Should we and can we afford to not invest in carbon-intensive industries?
Theme of presentation
Technology, Interface & Infrastructure
For workshops and discussions, what level is the intended audience?
–
Length of session (if other than 25 minutes, specify how long)
25 minutes
Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?
yes
Slides or further information (optional)
Sustainability Initiative
Slides
Special requests
–
Is this Submission a Draft or Final?
Info

This is a Completed submission for Wikimania 2017 ready to be reviewed by a member of the Programme Committee.

Interested attendees

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with a hash and four tildes. (# ~~~~).

  1. Anne Delong (talk) 06:17, 16 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  2. --Kritzolina (talk) 21:04, 26 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Jules78120 (talk) 00:21, 27 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Schiste (talk) 13:18, 3 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  5. MB-one (talk) 13:30, 8 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Daniel Mietchen (talk) 02:46, 9 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  7. Amir É. Aharoni (talk) 10:00, 9 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Jsamwrites (talk) 13:35, 9 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  9. Freddy2001 (talk) 07:08, 10 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  10. Itzike (talk) 14:06, 10 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  11. SSastry (WMF) (talk) 17:00, 10 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  12. Christina Rupprecht (WMDE) (talk) 09:41, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  13. GDubuc (WMF) (talk) 20:13, 1 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  14. --Gereon K. (talk) 18:07, 3 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  15. Ovedc (talk) 07:11, 4 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  16. --Elitre (WMF) (talk) 13:58, 23 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  17. Mervat Salman (talk) 18:45, 30 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  18. Rozmador (talk) 02:38, 29 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  19. John Andersson (WMSE) (talk) 03:18, 7 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  20. Rhythm (talk) 15:04, 13 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  21. Visem (talk) 15:13, 13 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
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