Did you know that 1 hour of 4k video streaming requires as much energy as a small car for a 4-hour drive?1 Or did you know that one tweet on X (former Twitter) generates as much CO2 as a human fart? Digital technologies don’t produce visible pollution like other sectors, for example the oil or food industries. Therefore, a lot of people wrongly assume that it is “clean”, or environmentally less harmful. But in fact, if the Internet was a country, it would be the 4th largest polluter.2 The energy consumption of the internet and digital devices isn’t the only hurdle for digital sustainability. Sustainability also includes accessibility. Digital services should be available for all people, regardless of their hardware, software, language, location or their hearing, movement, sight, and cognitive abilities.
- What can we as designers do, to tackle such a huge problem?
- How can we educate the masses about the environmental impact of digital technologies?
- How can we minimalize the carbon footprint of our work?
- How can we ensure accessibility to our work for everyone?
Now you might think that any individual effort to reduce the web’s environmental impact is a drop in the ocean. But as designers, we are in a position of relative power compared to other industries. We build products that might be used by thousands, even millions of users. Any improvements we make have the potential for a vast impact when scaled up to that level. Reducing carbon emissions caused by the products we build is an obvious place to start, while also continuing to think holistically and bearing in mind other aspects of digital sustainability.3
My vision and mission
My vision is a sustainable use of digital technologies, especially in connection with the Internet. I hope to be able to make a positive contribution to this topic, be it in the form of education or the development of a proposed solution for a very specific area of this major problem. I don’t have a specific goal yet, but I will definitely find one during my research, which I will pursue over the next two years. Until then, I will continue my broad research and share interesting facts and helpful resources with you.
Ecograder by Mightybytes
The first interesting tool I would like to share with you is Ecograder by Mightybytes. Mightybytes has been a pioneer in sustainable digital development for over two decades. The US-based B Corp-certified digital agency has led the way for its peers by championing sustainable web development. In 2013, Mightybytes released Ecograder, a tool designed assess a web page and present a report highlighting aspects that influence the sustainability of that page. So if you have your own website and want to see how sustainable it is, have it tested by Ecograder and please share your results in the comments section.4
Closing quote
Finally, I would like to quote Gerry McGovern from his book „World Wide Waste“:
“Digital is physical. Every byte is supported by an atom. Every single action in digital costs the Earth energy. […] Digital is demanding an increasing share of the Earth’s energy and resources and is a major contributor to the generation of toxic trash, to a culture of disposability, convenience and the most wasteful behavior ever seen in human history. Used wisely, digital could be saving our planet, making things more productive and efficient, and more environmentally friendly, while improving living standards. Right now, however, digital is killing our planet.” (McGovern 2020, p. 9)5
- Videostreaming: Energiebedarf und CO2-Emissionen ↩︎
- Frick, Tim (2016): Designing for Sustainability. A Guide to building greener digital products & services. ↩︎
- Barker, Michelle (2023): Introduction to web sustainability ↩︎
- CO2.JS Case Study – Ecograder by Mightybytes. ↩︎
- McGovern, Gerry (2020): World Wide Waste. How digital is killing our planet – and what we can do about it. ↩︎
