Part of NHS architecture principles
All digital services need to be delivered sustainably
All services need to be delivered sustainably.
Summary
All services need to be delivered sustainably.
Rationale
Digital services need to be ‘resilient’. That is - robust and able to withstand and respond to changes arising out of the environmental emergency.
The impact of digital services on 'embodied emissions' or ecological and social impact from mining and manufacture (that is, the environmental cost of producing and disposing of IT equipment) should be considered.
Design principles
Minimise data retention and resolution
Code efficiently
Limit architectural obsolescence
Provide access that minimises end user device numbers
Carefully consider the benefits of utilising artificial intelligence or machine learning
Implication
Architects should consider the impact of climate change in their work from three perspectives, in addition to the other principles.
- Set non-functional requirements that meet your optimum specification while balancing commercial impact
- Design services that make best use of resources to reduce cost and carbon emissions
- Select suppliers considering their carbon footprint
- Work with the supply chain to reduce impact
- Promote the move to environmentally sustainable cloud services
- Promote digital by default as a principle, reducing CO2 in health and care business processes
- Minimise the impacts for the health and care system, such as client devices and two-factor authentication
Last edited: 26 September 2022 5:13 pm