RGESN
The RGESN (Référentiel général d'écoconception de services numériques) is the French public reference framework listing ecodesign good practices applicable to a digital service.
Origin
It derives from the French REEN Act of 15 November 2021 on reducing the environmental footprint of digital technology. A first version was published in 2022. The version in force, 2024, was published in May 2024 by Arcep and Arcom, in coordination with ADEME.
Structure
The 2024 version contains 78 criteria across 9 themes: strategy, specifications, architecture, UX/UI, content, frontend, backend, hosting and algorithms.
Each criterion carries three attributes: implementation difficulty, priority, and applicability, since a criterion may not apply to a given service. Each comes with a practical sheet describing how to implement and verify it.
Difference from the GR491
The RGESN is a public framework, deliberately compact to remain usable, and stems from a legal obligation. The GR491, published by the Institute for Sustainable IT, is broader and aims for completeness.
They are complementary: the RGESN serves as an assessment baseline, the GR491 as an implementation library.
