Green IT Experts: 6 Responsible Digital Leaders to Follow

Digital technology offers many benefits, but its growing use has negative consequences, especially for the environment. We need to think about this issue, and building a responsible digital approach (also known as green IT) is one way to use technology while respecting planetary boundaries. To better understand the concept, here are six green IT experts we recommend you follow.

Véronique Torner: president of Numeum

Véronique Torner has dedicated her whole career to the digital sector. In 1998, she co-created Black Orange, a pioneering e-commerce startup that was sold to Éditions Atlas before the crisis.

In 2006, she co-founded Alter Way, a forward-looking company specializing in open source solutions. Under her leadership, Alter Way established itself as a leading player in information technology, offering consulting and development services to a diverse client base. At the end of 2021, Alter Way joined the Smile group, the European leader in open source digital services.

Since 2013, Véronique Torner has contributed her expertise as a board member of Numeum (formerly Syntec Numérique). From 2019, she has sat on the executive committee, in charge of the strategic Responsible Digital program and the Planet Tech'Care initiative. Her remarkable contribution to these initiatives led to her being elected president of Numeum in June 2023, becoming the first woman to hold this prestigious position.

Numeum is the main trade association for digital companies in France, bringing together more than 2,500 companies that generate 85% of the sector's total revenue in the country, employing 530,000 people.

According to Véronique, we need to move toward a more sustainable digital. Indeed, "digital technology is unavoidable today, but it has a potion-poison dimension. It is our duty to offer a future for digital that will be responsible, to support society." Digital can even be used to improve the environmental performance of other sectors. In Véronique's words: "It is also an industry with an environmental footprint. But it is a huge lever in many sectors to solve the problem of the ecological transition."

Feel free to follow Véronique Torner on LinkedIn. She has more than 8,000 followers, drawn by her regular posts that reflect her commitment and her vision for the future of digital.

Frédéric Bordage: digital sobriety expert

Frédéric Bordage is an expert recognized in France and abroad in digital sobriety, a concept aimed at reducing the environmental and energy impact of digital technologies. Since the early 2000s, he has devoted himself to promoting more sustainable, eco-responsible digital practices.

Early in his career, he became aware of the growing ecological footprint of digital technology. This led him to focus on solutions that minimize the environmental impact of digital activities.

In 2004, Frédéric Bordage founded GreenIT.fr, a community and resource platform dedicated to digital sobriety and green IT. GreenIT.fr is the leading French-language source of information on the eco-design of digital services, with 30,000 readers per month and more than 200,000 unique visitors per year. Through this platform, Frédéric helps his clients (companies, local authorities and institutions) eco-design their websites, online services and other digital services. It is within this community that he brought out many concepts associated with responsible digital, such as digital sobriety, sustainable ICT and the responsible design of digital services.

He also co-founded the "Collectif Numérique Responsable", an initiative bringing together various players in the digital industry who want to promote more sustainable practices.

Frédéric's commitment to green digital does not stop there. He is also the author of several books, including "Sobriété numérique, les clés pour agir" (Digital Sobriety: Keys to Action, 2019) and "Écoconception Web : les 115 bonnes pratiques : Doper son site et réduire son empreinte écologique" (Web Eco-design: 115 Best Practices, 2015).

Committed as ever, he is now a speaker, consultant and journalist, and hosts a series of podcasts, in which he discusses the environmental footprint of global digital technology, low tech and remote work, among other topics.

Doralie Besnard-Guiol: digital transition development officer

Doralie Besnard-Guiol is a French professional specializing in the development of the digital transition. She currently works as the digital transition development officer for the Métropole Rouen Normandie. Her work focuses on promoting and implementing responsible digital practices. She organizes and takes part in various events and conferences in collaboration with other experts and local companies.

She is a driving force on these topics among local authorities. At the Métropole Rouen Normandie, she has carried out many actions in support of the REEN law (France's law on reducing the environmental footprint of digital technology), a law adopted in 2021 that aims to limit the impact of technology. In July 2024, Doralie was appointed secretary general of the Institut du Numérique Responsable (INR, the Responsible Digital Institute). In parallel, she also created an association to raise teenagers' awareness of responsible digital. She is recognized for her commitment to digital responsibility and her role in promoting sustainable development strategies in the tech sector.

Rémy Marrone: trainer, author and journalist in responsible digital

Rémy Marrone is a French trainer, author and journalist specializing in responsible digital. Since 2012, he has worked as an independent expert in digital marketing and Green IT. Convinced of the climate emergency, he helps organizations understand the stakes of digital technology to foster an ecological and social transition. He has spoken on this subject at several schools, such as Audencia Business School (where he graduated) and La Sorbonne, to engage students in the process. He also worked as a project director at the Swiss Institut du Numérique Responsable (INR).

To increase awareness, he has co-written several books. He is co-author of "Le Grand Livre du Marketing Digital, 3rd edition" (The Big Book of Digital Marketing), published in 2023, and of "B.A-BA du Numérique Responsable" (The ABCs of Responsible Digital) with Aïste Ru and Olivier V., published in 2023.

The Big Book of Digital Marketing helps professionals and students alike learn to master the rules of digital while helping shape a more sustainable, fair and virtuous world. It helps readers understand digital and implement strategies that make sense.

The ABCs of Responsible Digital is a book aimed mainly at companies. It consists of 52 sheets, one per week, that offer ways to become a more sustainable, inclusive and ethical company by adopting a responsible digital approach.

Marion Graeffly: co-founder of Telecoop France and winner of the Prix de l'Entreprise Éthique

After earning a degree in International Marketing, Marion Graeffly entered the food industry by joining the large group Mars Chocolat France for 7 years.

At the same time, she became interested in a completely different sector... and developed a deep conviction: we need to change the way we use digital technology.

In 2020, she co-founded the TeleCoop France cooperative. It is a telecom operator, today the first cooperative mobile operator with an ecological and solidarity mission. The company's goal is to let everyone use digital technology in a more eco-responsible way. To do this, unlike other operators, you can be billed based on your actual mobile data use rather than a predefined plan. Thanks to this innovation, users are less tempted to spend too much time on their screens. Telecoop also provides real follow-up for its customers and encourages them, for example, to find ways to keep their phone as long as possible. Today, the co-founders' goal is to move from a model focused only on individuals to one that also serves businesses, where digital technology is everywhere, and to expand their offering with other services and devices beyond phone plans.

As a cooperative committed to more responsible use of digital technology, TeleCoop has developed many projects. One of the latest examples is the phone booth project. We were lucky enough to see it at the Shadok in Strasbourg during the European Responsible Digital Week. While the booth can help out when a battery is low or a phone has been forgotten, the main goal is to push back as far as possible the age at which young people get their first phone, for example by placing it outside middle and high schools.

You can follow Marion's adventures on LinkedIn, where she regularly posts about responsible digital!

Olivier Vergeynst: director of ISIT-BE

Olivier Vergeynst is the director of the Belgian Institute for Responsible Digital (ISIT-BE), the equivalent of the French Institut du Numérique Responsable (INR). The goal of this non-profit association is to create and continuously improve tools, guides and training to help organizations move toward a more sustainable digital.

With more than 20 years of experience at JPMorgan, Euroclear and Ingenico, Olivier led technical teams around the world, which strengthened his IT expertise.

As a pioneer of responsible digital, Olivier has taken part in many projects. For example, he contributed to the 2019 study "Environmental footprint of the digital world" and the 2020 iNum study.

He also gives many Belgian and international talks, trains senior executives and speaks at many universities and higher-education schools to share his knowledge.

A true Swiss army knife, he is also co-author of "B.A.-BA du Numérique Responsable - 52 semaines pour devenir une entreprise plus inclusive, éthique et durable" (52 weeks to become a more inclusive, ethical and sustainable company).

It was therefore a great pleasure to organize a discovery session of our Responsible Digital scenario with Olivier and about twenty ISIT-BE member organizations (Orange, Infrabel, RTBF...) last month.

If you would like to follow the adventures of a digital expert, we invite you to follow Olivier on LinkedIn.

We hope these portraits inspired you and made you want to learn more about responsible digital! Feel free to follow these experts on LinkedIn.

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