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Oct 20 2023
Oct 20

DrupalCon is the annual gathering of leaders in Drupal to meet, share knowledge, discuss the project roadmap, and work directly on progressing the development of Drupal Core at daily contribution events. On Friday 20th October, there is a huge Code Sprint where 100’s of Drupal Developers will make huge strides in progressing major initiatives.

We spoke to our Drupal Director, Paul Johnson, to find out more about the event, what he learned and how his talk went.

Visit Britain Digital Experience Platform at DrupalCon Lille

Photo credit - Mike Gilford

How did your talk go?

Together with Marie Orpen, Visit Britain's Head of Digital, I presented how CTI Digital is playing a central role in digital transformation across the organisation. The session focussed on how we led an extensive Discovery Phase and revealed what process and techniques we used to gather a body of knowledge to support decision-making by Visit Britain, leading to significant change in both public-facing websites, operating models and ways of working.

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Photo credit - Mike Gilford

If you would like to take a look through Paul's presentation during the talk, click here.

What were the key findings from the talks you attended?

Much like GDPR and accessibility legislation that came before them, new UK and EU legislation relating to carbon impact reports by businesses are on the near horizon. They must be on your agenda. 

At the DrupalCon 2 sessions we attended, we were provided with valuable knowledge transfer to complement our existing expertise in the subject.

In the UK, Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) and EU the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) are set to arrive in 2024. They will introduce mandatory reporting of carbon emissions and tracking of improvements to the footprint.

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At both the infrastructure and software application levels, there are measures which can be taken to significantly reduce the carbon impact of digital services. The key first step in the journey to compliance with these legislations is the measurement of the current situation.

Our partner Platform.sh presented work they are undertaking together with Nestle to accurately track and report the carbon impact of Nestle’s Drupal applications and hosting infrastructure. Detailing the tools and techniques their enterprise uses to benchmark and track improvements, and how measures they have taken, such as moving hosting to countries drawing from carbon-neutral energy to performance optimisation in the application layer, are all lessons we can learn from.

Moving to green data centres brings the greatest benefit. A shift from Ireland to Sweden brings an 80% reduction in carbon footprint. Whilst essential, adapting the application layer yields far smaller benefits. However, a combination of these measures brings a significant benefit to the environment.

In a related session, Janne Kalliola signposted wider industry research, including findings from the University of Beira Interior in Portugal, concluding that there is a strong or very strong correlation between (software) execution time and energy consumption. All website owners need to begin to place greater emphasis upon and invest in web application performance and optimisation.

Of great concern and emphasising the importance of optimisation initiatives is that currently, global energy demand is growing faster than the production of green energy.

Our Drupal Director, Paul Johnson, talks at DrupalCon Lille 2023


"The ICT sector accounts for 4-10% of the world's energy consumption and it's growing" - Janne Kalliola

How are we adopting what you learned?

CTI Digital is starting to work with existing clients and will make available consultancy services to help organisations prepare for the new legislation.

If your organisation is approaching a digital transformation, why not get in touch with our experts today!

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