Sustainable Technology

Building a sustainable digital infrastructure, one sensor at a time

Canemah Nature Laboratory runs a network of environmental sensors, databases, web applications, and public-facing sites from a single server in a home office in Oregon City. Every technical decision reflects a commitment to minimizing our digital carbon footprint while maximizing the quality and accessibility of ecological data.

Principles

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100% Renewable Energy

Hosted on a Mac Mini M4 Pro server powered exclusively by Portland General Electric's renewable energy program. No fossil fuels power this infrastructure.

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Self-Hosted Infrastructure

Complete digital sovereignty. No cloud providers, no data centers. The server sits in a home office, minimizing transmission distances and energy loss. Sensor data stays local.

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Zero External Dependencies

No CDNs, no Google Fonts, no tracking scripts. Every resource is served directly from our server. Native system fonts and emoji replace external libraries.

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Minimal, Purposeful Code

Clean, semantic HTML. Modular CSS. Vanilla JavaScript only where it adds value. No bloated frameworks. Every line of code earns its place.

Infrastructure

Sensor Network

Environmental monitoring through Tempest weather stations, BirdWeather acoustic detectors, Ecowitt soil and garden sensors, and AirLink air quality monitors—all feeding a local MySQL database via lightweight PHP collection scripts.

LAMP Stack

Apache, MySQL, PHP—proven, efficient, and well understood. Server-side rendering eliminates the need for JavaScript frameworks. File-based caching reduces database load for public pages.

Efficient Data Architecture

Sensor readings, document archives, project catalogs, and bird detection records are organized in normalized MySQL schemas. Queries are tuned, indexes are purposeful, and data stays close to where it's collected.

Accessible by Design

Clean HTML that works for everyone—screen readers, slow connections, and modern browsers alike. Semantic structure over div soup. No JavaScript required for core content.

Environmental Impact

Near Zero Carbon Footprint Renewable energy + local hosting + optimized code
70% Less Data Transfer No CDNs, no external resources, no tracking
Single Origin Network Requests Everything from one source, one connection
Always On Sensor Collection 24/7 environmental monitoring on 18W idle power

Part of a Network

Canemah Nature Laboratory shares infrastructure and principles with other projects hosted on the same renewable-powered server:

Each site demonstrates that sustainable web practices don't require compromise—they often result in faster, more reliable, more accessible experiences.