Is sustainable digital design the new accessible design?
As ESG regulations evolve, sustainability is becoming an increasingly important cornerstone of corporate strategy as organisations consider how best to meet their obligations while managing their bottom lines. This shift in thinking is starting to have a major impact on digital design considerations.
In the early 2000’s, before the advent of WCAG A, AA and AAA accessibility standards, web developers worked with a series of “standards” and “best practices” that were forever in flux. New accessible web browsers would emerge only to dramatically change the way you delivered content. Standards would shift based on what felt like the mood or personal requirements of the assessor. And yes, that’s right, each webpage of every website was manually assessed. Can you imagine that now?
With the emergence of modern content management systems and low-code environments, we almost take accessibility for granted. If in doubt, you can task an AI solution to run you a report and, if you are a decent prompt engineer, have the AI fix it for you too.
More recently we have seen the emergence of inclusive design - a broader definition of accessibility. Again, this is equally affected and impacted by legislation and interpretation, particularly in the context of the global nature of digital products and services. Designers have more constraints than ever before but some of these constraints are ill-defined and open to interpretation.
This leads me to sustainable digital design or climate-conscious design…
What is sustainable digital design and why is that even a thing?
As early as 2018 Policy Connect published a report detailing the potential climate impact of the growth of digital (and the potential upside). It might surprise you to learn that digital and information and communications technology are the fastest-growing contributors to global emissions. Digital already accounts for more than 4% of all global emissions, more than twice the emissions from all global aviation. All of those air-conditioned servers that drive the cloud, all that video streaming and now all of that high-powered AI are driving a huge amount of processing, and to keep it basic processing = electricity. Using cryptocurrency as an example, Bitcoin alone is estimated to consume 127 terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy a year - that’s more than the whole of Norway!
So that’s right, your iPhone usage is worse for the planet than flying at least collectively. Even minor actions can have a big impact. The average office worker's yearly email activity can account for nearly a .2 of a tonne of C02e, which takes ~10 (mature) trees to sequester.
Am I suggesting you stop shopping online, stop all your video calls and start sending letters again instead of email? No. Greater use of digital and technology, when applied thoughtfully, will undoubtedly make a difference to other sectors in lowering emissions, but left unchecked we could be sleepwalking into a digital emissions crisis - hence the need for sustainable digital design.
What standards should we use?
This would be the point where I should link to the globally agreed standards for sustainable designs…sadly, but unsurprisingly, these do not exist. So, in a world without standards, does that mean you do nothing?
There might not be specific standards by which you can reduce the planetary impact of your digital campaign or your website, but there are standards for design, agile delivery and for lean design – which, when applied thoughtfully, should result in lower carbon impacts. Consider things like your image resolution and sizes, your use of video and the length of the journey for your clients and customers. Has your agency been banging on about creating a brand architecture, or a digital pattern library? If so, great as these solutions support the reuse of components and ultimately drive lower carbon outcomes.
A little like the start of accessibility, you could wait for standards to emerge, but that won’t help your clients or your bottom line. Thinking sustainably about digital design can create more efficient customer journeys, and could save you energy in web hosting. More importantly, your customers will be grateful that by using standards or not, you are trying to do the right thing for the planet, and that could be priceless.
Is sustainable design the new accessibility?
We think probably yes. In fact, they are probably both supportive of each other. Ultimately the growth in accessible design was driven by regulation, and with the emergence of new corporate reporting standards for ESG and new ISO standards for sustainability, we expect to see a growth in the need for your digital products to be at least measurable in terms of impact. Like accessibility, we expect that in five or so years it will be built into every tool that we use to ensure we keep on the straight and narrow.
It could be argued that digital experiences that require less bandwidth are also positive from an inclusivity perspective too. Looking at our own country, there are huge tracts of Scotland where citizens carry multiple SIM cards as service is so patchy and 3G is still the dominant data provision. Or from a socio-economic inclusion perspective - clearly, not everyone can afford 5G unlimited data contracts or 200MB broadband that can sometimes be required to best experience some digital products today.
Ultimately, we are facing what can only be called a digital climate crisis and doing something now is better than waiting for standards to emerge. Whether it's for inclusivity reasons, for financial reasons or just doing the right thing for the planet, there is little justification for ignoring sustainability when looking at your digital products and services.
Our 3 things to think about to keep it simple?
Less content/code = less carbon
Add sustainability as a persistent principle or constraint for your marketing team or agency
Use the other readily available standards, lean design, agile etc. which are focused on reducing waste to help you navigate
If you would like to discuss sustainable design with us further, please get in contact.
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