The digital sustainability efforts are in support of the Singapore Green Plan 2030 and the public sector’s commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2045.
Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) have unveiled their first suite of digital sustainability initiatives to green the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.
GovTech will also be fostering more partnerships to engage the wider ecosystem and develop solutions and best practices for digital sustainability. These efforts are in support of the Singapore Green Plan 2030 and the public sector’s commitment to achieving net zero emissions around 2045.
Green computing initiatives
IMDA has launched two green computing initiatives that aim to promote sustainable practices and efficient use of computing resources in the tech sector.
First, IMDA’s Green Computing Funding Initiative (GCFI) will allocate $30m to push for research to optimise software design and function for energy efficiency. It enables researchers from institutes of higher learning to collaborate with the industry to solve problems related to green computing.
To address the challenges faced by the industry, GCFI will focus on use cases that are currently unmet by commercial solutions. IMDA will call for proposals this year to invite researchers and industry to co-develop low-carbon digital solutions.
IMDA is also inviting industry partners to participate in green software trials to better understand how to develop green software, reducing energy use and IT costs. Participants, such as Amazon Web Services, NCS, Ant Group, and the Singapore Institute of Technology, will apply carbon reduction techniques to digital applications and measure their impact.
The trials will aim to look at the effectiveness of carbon reduction in real-world applications and the ability to deliver cost and energy efficiency without affecting performance.
The trials will also generate valuable data and insights for IMDA to create guidelines for the industry on developing green software. Green software is a nascent and growing space. It will position Singapore to further ICT growth and help tech companies remain competitive.
Beyond greening the ICT sector, IMDA is driving ICT for green, empowering businesses on their sustainability journey. IMDA has identified nine digital solutions for sustainability under the advanced digital solutions (ADS) programme.
These digital solutions in resource optimisation and carbon management allow companies to achieve productivity gains and cost-savings, and gain access to new markets while reducing emissions. Under the ADS programme, grant support for up to 70 per cent is provided for the adoption of the digital solutions.
Meanwhile, GovTech reports it has facilitated the adoption of digital signatures and payments to reduce paper consumption, implemented digital workplace solutions such as video conferencing to reduce travel-related emissions and developed common platforms to encourage re-use in digital production.
Additionally, the agency has consolidated government data centres, launched the Government on Commercial Cloud (GCC) in 2019 and enabled the adoption of commercial cloud services. To date, 70 per cent of eligible government systems has been moved to cloud.
GovTech has also piloted data analytics capabilities to support and improve environmental policymaking, operations planning, and service delivery.
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Quelle/Source: Smart Cities World, 30.01.2024
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