Dispatch from Bristol
From ROT to Responsibility in Information Governance and Digital Sustainability
It has taken me three weeks to circle back to my notes from the Archives and Records Association Annual Conference in Bristol. That delay is partly the reality of travel, PDF Days Europe, and catching up on work. But it is also because the two sessions I want to report on were so packed with detail, statistics, and provocations that they deserved more than a hasty write-up. Yesterday’s post on ROT (redundant, obsolete, trivial information) finally nudged me to revisit them.
At the time, I scribbled furiously as two very different but complementary voices gave separate presentations in different conference tracks. However, both addressed the sustainability challenge head-on. Both argued that records and information managers must see themselves as central to the environmental, social, and governance agenda. And both left me with the sense that what we sometimes think of as “housekeeping” — appraisal, retention, and disposal — is actually frontline sustainability work.
Session One: Reynold Lemming on Interfacing Information Governance with the Ethical Agenda
The first of these sessions came from Reynold Lemming, Managing Director of Informu Solutions Ltd, who delivered a paper titled Interfacing Information Governance with the Ethical Agenda. Reynold has been in the field for more than three decades, and his authority showed. He is currently Vice Chair of external engagement for the Information and Records Management Society and Chair of its ESG Landfill group.
Reynold’s argument was that information governance is not a peripheral administrative task. It is already woven into the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) agenda.
He laid it out pillar by pillar:
Environmental: Data centers are growing at a staggering rate. By 2026, their power consumption may equal that of the entire nation of Japan. They also consume vast quantities of water, often potable water that could otherwise serve communities. And the constant demand for new hardware requires rare earth minerals, extracted at significant ecological and geopolitical cost.
Social: Information rights are human rights. In an era of misinformation, AI hallucinations, and even deliberate political attempts to erase inconvenient truths, archivists and records professionals are custodians of memory. Reynold cited the defunding of libraries and archives in the United States as a stark reminder that this work is under threat.
Governance: Records are the evidence base for transparency. They allow actions to be scrutinized and leaders to be held accountable. Without them, oversight collapses.
The statistics he shared were dizzying. Global data volumes are projected at 175–180 zettabytes by 2025. Email traffic stands at 361 billion messages a day. Fifty-five percent of organizational data is “dark” — held but not understood or used. And shadow IT, unsanctioned apps and systems, is expected to make up more than half of corporate applications by 2027.
“We live in an age not of big data, but of gigantic data.”
Reynold concluded with a phrase that stuck with me: we no longer live in the age of big data, but of gigantic data. His point was clear. Unless professionals apply appraisal, retention, and purposeful disposal, neither sustainability commitments nor democratic accountability can be met.
Session Two: Joy Siller on the Environmental Impact of Digital Information Management
Later in the program came another session that brought the environmental focus even closer to home. Joy Siller, Managing Director of Siller Systems Administration, spoke on The Environmental Impact of Digital Information Management: It’s Time to Think About Sustainable Practices.
“Thinking is over. It is time to adopt sustainable practices.”
In fact, Joy confessed at the outset that she had already tweaked her title. For her, the time to think is long gone. It is time to adopt sustainable practices.
She described herself as a latecomer to the sustainability debate, but once she discovered it she became, in her words, “a zealot.” With a touch of humor, she admitted that her own online research probably consumed more energy than her flight from Australia. The laugh line set the stage, but what followed was a relentless presentation of what she called inconvenient numbers.
Between 100–200 zettabytes of global data by the end of 2025, possibly tenfold growth by 2035.
Eighty to ninety percent of stored data is dark or ROT, with ninety percent never looked at after three months.
Ninety-two percent of organizations use cloud services, and by 2025 half the world’s data will be in the cloud.
Data centers already emit more greenhouse gas than aviation and consume four percent of global electricity today, rising to thirteen percent by 2030.
An average data center uses around 300,000 gallons of water a day — enough to supply 1,000 homes.
E-waste is expected to rise from 60 million tons in 2022 to 82 million tons by 2030, while recycling rates decline.
Joy did not shy away from examples that sound like science fiction. She noted that companies are already planning orbital and lunar data centers by 2026–27. Microsoft has even floated nuclear options, including the revival of the Three Mile Island site. Her question to the audience was whether any of this could truly be called sustainability.
Her prescriptions were more grounded. Reexamine assumptions about permanence and value. Optimize formats and storage, distinguishing between online, nearline, and offline. Deploy tools — even AI if necessary — to detect dark and redundant data. And above all, press for standards, benchmarks, and measurable goals. She highlighted survey results showing that more than half of information managers did not know whether their cloud contracts included provisions for data disposal. That, she argued, is unacceptable.
Joy Siller and the RIMPA Hackathon
What made Joy’s presentation resonate even more is that her advocacy does not stop in Bristol. She has been announced as Mistress of Ceremonies for the upcoming RIMPA Hackathon 2025, which will directly tackle the question of how information management can contribute to environmental sustainability.
The Hackathon will run as a hybrid event on 27–28 October 2025, hosted both at the Public Record Office Victoria and during the RIMPA Live Convention 2025 in Melbourne. Teams of two to six participants are eligible, with at least one member required to attend in person. The event is open to students, professionals, vendors, developers, data experts, archivists — in short, anyone with the passion and creativity to innovate.
The challenge is ambitious:
Identify the environmental impacts of information management activities.
Explore how those impacts can be measured.
Pinpoint key risks.
Propose practical ways to reduce them.
Solutions might take many forms — a methodology, a digital tool specification, a new strategy, or something entirely different. The emphasis will be on creativity and innovation.
The prize is significant: AUD $10,000 for the winning team, along with recognition across RIMPA Global’s platforms, mentorship and networking opportunities, and the chance to present the solution as a case study at RIMPA Live 2026.
This hackathon takes the themes of Bristol and moves them from awareness to action. If Bristol was about confronting inconvenient truths, Melbourne will be about building solutions. Joy’s role as MC ensures the same energy and urgency will carry through.
Three Weeks Later: Connecting the Threads
Three weeks on, I find myself reflecting on how these two sessions echo and extend the conversation about ROT. What might once have seemed like routine digital housekeeping now reads as a frontline sustainability strategy.
Reynold reminded us that information governance supports all three dimensions of ESG: environmental stewardship, social justice, and governance accountability. Joy pressed home the urgency, showing that data growth, power use, and e-waste make inaction indefensible. And the upcoming RIMPA Hackathon demonstrates that the profession is not just talking about the problem but creating space to innovate solutions.
Records and information professionals are not bystanders. We are not passive custodians of order. We are active participants in shaping sustainable digital futures. Every appraisal decision, every disposal action, every metadata choice is also an environmental action.
Bristol reminded me of that truth. The Melbourne hackathon will test how far the profession can take it.
Loving these dispatches. Thank you for the info.