Tech transformation of public services to be made more sustainable with new emissions tracking software

London, UK – The UK Government’s work to make accessing digital services easier and more secure will be more sustainable, thanks to a new partnership with a UK cloud start-up.

The contract will see Greenpixie, founded in 2021, help the government track the environmental impacts of its new One Login service, which is set to help millions of Britons access a suite of central government services in an easy and secure way.

The technology from Greenpixie will track how much energy and water is being used to power the servers needed every time someone uses One Login to access a different service.

As a result, the Government Digital Service IT team will be able to find out how their engineering decisions impact the emissions produced by the high-energy cloud computing systems behind One Login. They will then make informed decisions which reduce the product’s environmental impact.

This will be particularly important as One Login continues increasing its consumption of cloud computing services over the coming months to accommodate its rising number of users.

Minister for AI and Digital Government, Feryal Clark, said:

“While we make the most of technology to overhaul public services, we must make sure we are leading by example in protecting our climate.

“Our work with Greenpixie will help give us the insight we need to keep a tight grip on environmental impacts as we use technology to save citizens valuable time and money while using our services.”

Working with Greenpixie is the latest development in the Government Digital Service’s work to build on its leadership in cloud sustainability by prioritising efficient cloud infrastructure which minimises waste where possible. This has included techniques such as the adoption of serverless architecture and a change in processor code.  

With the help of Greenpixie, the One Login team will have the observability needed to undertake even more sophisticated cloud sustainability techniques, which will lead to significant carbon avoidance as the product continues to scale.

Greenpixie’s CEO, John Ridd, said: 

“One Login is continuing to iterate, develop, and improve its sustainability practices every day. It’s a privilege to assist the team on their mission to create the greenest digital service in government.” 

Greenpixie data found that GDS' efficient by design policy (opting for Cloud Native architecture where possible) had made them over 6x more carbon efficient than the average enterprise with a similar level of usage.

Media Contact: 

Benjamin Price

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