Hi all, Thanks Lukas for bringing this back up. Since my name was mentioned, I'll share some context, but I'm copying my colleague Juliet Barbara who is best positioned to move this forward, as she is the current holder of our relationship with Greenpeace.
The Comms, Finance, and COO teams met with Greenpeace in 2015 to discuss the ways the WMF could improve our overall environmental footprint. The Foundation already has some positive efforts underway formally and informally - IIRC, we included clean energy consumption as a factor in evaluating in our RFC for our choice of a backup colo a few years back, we are transparent (if not overly proactive) in disclosure of energy consumption, we have sensible policies around server efficiency and hardware replacement, and we have pushed for clean energy alternatives for our SF office consumption. We are less effective in areas such as advocacy and purchasing (e.g., stating this is a priority for the movement, pushing our colos to provide clean sources/mixes). Some of these are questions of scale and efficiency - Ops runs a tight ship, and we're a relatively small footprint in our colos, so we don't necessarily have the ability to drive purchasing decisions based on scale alone. At the time the report came out, we started talking to Lukas about how we could improve our efforts at the WMF and across the movement, but we've had limited bandwidth to move this forward in the Foundation (and some transitions in our Finance and Operations leadership, who were acting as executive sponsors). However, I think it's safe to say that we'd like to continue to reduce our environmental impact, and look forward to the findings of this effort. Katherine On Wed, Mar 30, 2016 at 8:17 AM, Lukas Mezger <lukas.mez...@gmail.com> wrote: > Dear MZMcBride and Brion, > > Thank you for your comments! Let me quickly respond to a few points. > > – I have in fact already looked at previous conversations regarding the > environmental impact of the Wikimedia movement, but apparently they never > went anywhere. From my point of view, the topic leaves no room for > cynicism, looking at how easy it is to improve the current situation. > > – In fact I would be grateful if you could point me to any information > about the WMF's energy use that I can understand. > > – It is probably true that our absolute numbers might not be very large, > but I think we should still set an example by having the servers run on > renewable energy, by asking the board to make a strong renewable energy > commitment, and by adopting a green investment strategy for the Wikimedia > endowment. > > – I have also been in a conversation with Greenpeace USA, so I can try to > answer any further questions regarding their report if needed. The report > is actually based on detailed figures that the WMF (in person of Katherin > Maher) shared with Greenpeace. > > Thanks again, > > Lukas / Gnom > > 2016-03-30 16:30 GMT+02:00 Brion Vibber <bvib...@wikimedia.org>: > > > On Wed, Mar 30, 2016 at 12:27 AM, Lukas Mezger <lukas.mez...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > > > > > Dear readers of the Wikitech mailing list, > > > > > > I am a member of the Wikipedia community and I have started a project > to > > > reduce the environmental impact of the Wikimedia movement > > > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact>. The main idea > is > > > to > > > use renewable energy for running the Wikimedia servers and the main > > reason > > > for this is that by doing so, Wikipedia can set a great example for > > > environmental responsibility in the entire internet sector. > > > > > > My project was started after Greenpeace USA published a report > > > <http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global-warming/click-clean/> about the > > > energy consumption of the biggest sites on the Internet in 2015 and in > > > which Wikipedia, to my astonishment, performed poorly, receiving a "D" > > > score and only passing because of the Wikimedia Foundation's openness > > about > > > its energy consumption. > > > > > > > I don't see *anything* about energy consumption or environmental impact > in > > their statistics there. > > > > They do measure the relative balance of various energy sources, but that > > means little... We could probably be burning big lumps of coal and have a > > positive environmental impact if our relative energy consumption is much > > lower than competing sites might have been, but that isn't measured in > any > > way. > > > > They also measure some sort of "commitment" and "championship" of > specific > > energy sources, which sounds nice but doesn't in any way measure energy > > usage or environmental impact. > > > > > > > > > > I would very much like to change that and set up a page called > > > "Environmental > > > impact <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact>" on > Meta. > > I > > > have already discussed the issue with a few people both from the > > Wikimedia > > > Foundation's management and from the Wikimedia community and have > > received > > > positive responses. > > > > > > > Neat! > > > > -- brion > > > > > > > > > > In order to further advance the project, I would like to learn more > about > > > how much energy Wikipedia's servers use. As far as I can tell, these > > > figures are not public, but I believe they could very well be. > > > > > > Also, I am interested to learn how changing a server site's energy > > sources > > > can be carried out on the operations side since the United States > energy > > > sector hasn't been completely deregulated yet. > > > > > > So, thank you very much for any comments! Maybe there also is an even > > > better forum to discuss these questions? > > > > > > Finally, if you would like to support my project, please consider > adding > > > your name to this list > > > < > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact#Show_your_support > > >. > > > Thank you. > > > Kind regards, > > > > > > Lukas Mezger / User:Gnom <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gnom> > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Wikitech-l mailing list > > > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikitech-l mailing list > > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l > -- Katherine Maher Wikimedia Foundation 149 New Montgomery Street San Francisco, CA 94105 +1 (415) 839-6885 ext. 6635 +1 (415) 712 4873 kma...@wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
