Sustainability¶
Defra leads the Greening Government ICT and Digital Services strategy. Our own services should show what good looks like.
Doctrine: 1. Platforms before projects. Built as products, 3. Reuse before buy
Principles: 3. Maximise value, minimise waste
Who these guardrails apply to
The core department. Whether the sustainability guardrails also apply to Defra's arm's length bodies is still to be confirmed.
Relates to TCoP point 12.
Defra services must also meet a 15th point of the Service Standard, deliver a sustainable service, including a sustainability statement against the 6 objectives in Defra's digital sustainability strategy. Use the Defra Digital Service Manual for how to do that. These guardrails cover the architecture decisions that contribute to it.
GR-SUS-01 Consider sustainability in design decisions¶
Should Include environmental impact as a factor in ADRs for hosting, architecture and technology choices.
In the Defra Digital Service Manual: assess risks and record sustainability actions - record the decisions in your sustainability statement as well as your ADRs.
GR-SUS-02 Right-size and switch off¶
Should Use autoscaling, scale non-production environments down out of hours, and delete unused resources.
GR-SUS-03 Choose lower-carbon regions and services¶
Could Where data rules allow, prefer cloud regions and services with lower carbon intensity, and use providers' carbon reporting.
GR-SUS-04 Keep data and pages lean¶
Should Store only the data you need, for as long as you need it, and keep page weight low - which also helps users on slow connections (GR-FE-05).
GR-SUS-05 Measure and report¶
Could Track the carbon footprint of your service using cloud provider tooling and report it alongside cost.
In the Defra Digital Service Manual: the metrics for each of Defra's six objectives.