Re: Next steps towards a net zero IETF

[Laurence Lundblade <[e-mail]>]

My general sense is that the overall climate change solution is in big infrastructure and changing some ways us humans do things. I don’t think making IETF net zero will have much affect on the planet overall. 

Most protocol work we do in IETF has leverage so that it a little work we do affects millions of people. I’m personally looking for activities that have lots of leverage built-in — see where we can apply our problem solving, administrative and political energy so that it reduces carbon for millions of people.

Net zero for one conference may not be an ideal goal say compared to reducing the carbon foot print of the Internet. Smaller and more energy efficient protocols like CBOR? :-). It takes energy to route each byte, right?

When I think personally about doing serious work towards net zero, I want something were there’s leverage built-in so the effort gets multiplied. That seems almost necessary for the main goal of net zero for the planet.

LL


On Tue, Mar 21, 2023 at 3:43 PM Greg Wood <[e-mail] <mailto:[e-mail]>> wrote:
Hello,

Built with input from the IETF community, we now have an initial approach and tools for calculating the IETF’s carbon footprint and a strategy for carbon offsetting. For 2023, we will implement this approach with data already available and seek to further improve it for future years. A blog post provides additional information and a link to a full report is at:

http://www.ietf.org/blog/towards-a-net-zero-ietf-next-steps/ <http://www.ietf.org/blog/towards-a-net-zero-ietf-next-steps/>

We hope to explore options for improving carbon footprint calculations and to gather additional information about the community’s preferences for carbon offsetting during a side meeting during the upcoming IETF 116 meeting:

Pacifico North
Room G301
8:30 JST on 30 March 2023 (23:30 UTC on 29 March)
https://ietf.zoom.us/j/86826219211?pwd=QjhvdkY5YmxIWi9YeE9iMzFReFh3dz09 <https://ietf.zoom.us/j/86826219211?pwd=QjhvdkY5YmxIWi9YeE9iMzFReFh3dz09>
Meeting ID: 868 2621 9211
Passcode: ietfco2

Details are also available on the IETF 116 side meeting wiki:

https://wiki.ietf.org/meeting/116/sidemeetings <https://wiki.ietf.org/meeting/116/sidemeetings>

Further discussion is also encouraged on [e-mail] <mailto:[e-mail]> mailing list (and reply-to for this email has been set to that list).

Please feel free to contact me directly if I can provide additional information.

-Greg

–
Greg Wood
Director of Communications and Operations
IETF Administration LLC
[e-mail] <mailto:[e-mail]>