In this episode of Tent Talks, Tim Frick delves into the evolving landscape of digital sustainability, a topic that's gaining traction but still relatively niche. Tim discusses recent regulatory changes, like the EU's Climate Sustainability Reporting Directive and Biden's executive order on AI, highlighting their impact on sustainability. He envisions a future where sustainable practices in digital product design and development become the norm, driven by a growing awareness and desire for change.

Tim also touches on the significant environmental impact of the internet and data centers, a revelation from his journey as a B Corp advocate. The discussion also covers the Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSGs) and their potential to shape web development and design. Tim acknowledges challenges like lack of awareness, technical debt, data accessibility, and legislative incentives in adopting sustainable practices. Lastly, he emphasizes the importance of inclusive economic practices and regenerative design in the digital product lifecycle and advises on measuring and communicating the impact of sustainability initiatives, drawing on his experiences with MightyBytes and B Corp certification.

Digital Sustainability's Future:

• Digital sustainability is an emerging, niche topic.
• Growing awareness in both technology and sustainability sectors.
• Hope for sustainability to become a default in digital product design in the next decade.
• Significant environmental impact of internet and data centers highlighted.

Web Sustainability Guidelines:

• WSGs developed to provide guidance in digital sustainability.
• A multidisciplinary approach covering business, UX design, web development, and more.
• Aimed at making sustainable practices more accessible and actionable.

Barriers to Sustainable Practices:

• Challenges include lack of awareness and understanding, technical debt, data accessibility, and lack of legislative incentives.
• Emphasis on the need for sustainable data strategies and supporting right-to-repair policies.

Regenerative Design and Inclusive Economic Practices:

• Focus on systemic thinking and sustainability in all decisions.
• Importance of powering digital products with renewable energy and responsible data strategies.
• Inclusion entails personal wellbeing, equitable hiring, and sharing economic benefits.

Measuring and Communicating Sustainability Initiatives:

• The B Impact Assessment as a valuable tool for measuring sustainability.
• Importance of collective action and making sustainability a journey rather than a switch to flip.

Notable Quotes:

• "Digital sustainability...is growing rapidly. As technology advances, the intersection between digital innovation and sustainability becomes more crucial."
• "My hope is that 10 years from now, [sustainability] is just a default way that people design and develop digital products."
• "The internet is a big machine...the true environmental impact of the internet [is significant]."
• "We need a set of guidelines to govern sustainable digital practices...and [the Web Sustainability Guidelines] aim to provide that."
• "Lack of awareness, technical debt, and data gaps are significant barriers in sustainable digital product development."
• "Sustainability is not a switch you flip. It's a journey. It's about continuous improvement and collective action towards a more sustainable future."

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!