May 2 , 2022 read
Novelis was pleased to host the Tech for Good Tour in its Parisian offices on April 25 to raise awareness among its employees about the social and environmental challenges of tech.
These workshops are organized at the initiative of Makesense and Latitudes, communities of tech actors acting to build an inclusive and sustainable society and to create an engaged and more responsible technology.
Chloé Molle, mobilizer and speaker of the Tech for Good tour team, came to lead a two-hour workshop with Novelis teams. Find below the report of this instructive and dynamic event.
During this workshop, Chloe started with a collective awareness in motion in order to put all the collaborators present in the room at the same level of information. This allowed us in a very visual way to become aware of the rate of parity between men and women in the tech industry and to realize the impact we have on the environment in terms of use and consumption of technologies (computer, smartphone, tablet…).
In many companies and in the Tech sector, women often represent only 30% of the workforce and are mostly represented in support functions: at Novelis, they are 42%!
Before you continue reading this, check your average phone screen time over the past week
You should know that 80% of adults spend +3h/day in front of a screen outside of work. What about you?
To conclude on the figures related to our consumption on technological devices: a person changes smartphone on average every 2 years.
This was followed by a moving debate where everyone had to position themselves at a specific point in the room to represent their perception of the role and impact of tech. Are we more sensitive to social or environmental issues? Will Tech save or destroy the world?
The participating Novelians were almost unanimous: for us, Tech can help save the world! Notably thanks to the advances in AI in medicine or via advanced robotics. The opinion was also shared on the risks and drifts related to the overconsumption of electronic devices that pollute and gradually destroy the environment. For example, 200kg is the weight of raw materials needed to build a smartphone of 200g.
Once everyone's ideas were expressed, Chloe presented us with a theoretical basis on what Tech for Good really is: clearly, a more committed and responsible tech with many causes to defend, but we'll come back to that right after.
At the end of this short plenary session, we divided into sub-groups to think about the levers of action on these different causes to defend:
- diversity in the digital world: to ensure that the development of digital use has an impact on the whole of our society and that it is accessible to the whole population
- digital citizenship: practicing forms of social participation that respect human rights and dignity through a more responsible use of technology
- digital sobriety: an approach that aims to minimize the environmental impact of digital technology by reducing the energy consumption of technological devices
- the respect of the human being: to think about the place of the human being in the digital world in order to avoid deviations and abuses linked to an overconsumption of technological objects
- digital accessibility: to allow all people, whether or not they have a disability and without discrimination, to have access to digital information at the same level
The objective was then to select 3 issues around each of these causes and to give ideas on concrete actions to be taken to respond to these issues.
Novelians have mobilized with enthusiasm and many ideas have emerged! An action plan to follow through on our ideas is already being developed.
Once again, thanks to makesense and Latitudes for facilitating this workshop to raise awareness of the social and environmental issues related to digital technology.
It was important for us that all employees be made aware of these issues so that we could be part of a responsible and environmentally friendly global approach.
About makesense & Latitudes
Makesense is a community platform that creates tools and programs for collective mobilization to enable everyone to take action and build an inclusive and sustainable society.
Latitudes is a community of tech actors who act to create an engaged and responsible technology: the goal is to respond to the social and environmental challenges of our time.
