The Cloud Isn’t Inherently More Sustainable: Manage The Environmental Impact Of Being Virtual

As the effects of the global climate crisis become more visible — increasing weather extremes, more frequent wildfires, shrinking sea ice — many of us are changing habits to reduce our impact on the environment: limiting our air or vehicle travel when possible (pre-pandemic), reducing our purchases or buying from companies that follow sustainable practices. But an everyday part of our lives that we increasingly rely upon — our online communications — also represents a growing segment of energy use and, in turn, environmental impact.

The global impact of our information technology practices continues to grow. Shifting to online video streaming and digital publications may seem like a greener way to consume media — less paper and transportation — but our digital technology use is now responsible for about 4% of global CO2 emissions. As more people around the world gain internet access, and more people shift to web-based communication, that number will continue to grow, with video projected to represent 80% of online traffic.

Reducing this environmental impact motivates industry experts like Tim Frick, founder of Mightybytes, a digital agency and Certified B Corporation that helps organizations amplify their impact, and meet business and marketing goals through digital storytelling and planet-friendly IT practices. Frick first shifted to the digital world in the 1990s, when online communication became a growing option for direct communications, although the tools and methods were different and his agency’s work continues to evolve.

“Back in the early 2010s, when we were just beginning to understand the internet’s environmental impact, The New York Times published an article noting that a blog post or e-book could potentially have a larger carbon footprint than its printed counterpart because of the ‘always on’ nature of digital media. That was an eye-opener,” Frick says. “Pixels require electricity, and most of that energy, even in 2020, is still powered by fossil fuels.” 

Recently, as part of my research on purpose-driven business, I reached out to Frick to learn more about “green” IT options and what the future might hold regarding more inclusive and sustainable online products and communications. Below are some highlights from his responses. 

Christopher Marquis: People often consider paperless an eco-friendly choice. But, what are some environmental implications of computing and this era of web meetings and virtual offices that people aren’t aware of?

Tim Frick: When you apply sustainability principles to the entire life cycle of a digital product or service—from its initial creation to its use and end-of-life—you begin to see how design and technology choices contribute, often unintentionally, to the internet’s massive environmental impact. 

In the past 30 years, we have transformed an entire economy, putting digital tools and practices at the heart of every business, nonprofit, and government agency. In many cases, the transition to digital improves an organization’s environmental impact, but it’s not a net-zero solution — and we don’t often consider the unintended consequences of our decisions. This is especially true of emerging technologies like blockchain, AI, IoT, and so on, where the potential impacts—environmental and otherwise—are even greater. 

All this has to change. The era of “move fast and break things” needs to end. Now, environmental sustainability is just one component of a broader conversation we need to have about responsibly incorporating digital tools and practices within our organizations. 

Marquis: How can individual businesses and employees change their IT practices to be more sustainable?

Frick: This really depends on how you define “sustainable.” Are we talking about the organization’s long-term viability or are we talking specifically about its environmental impact? And where does social impact fit in? Our digital choices increasingly impact how we socialize, view the world, interact with one another, and so on. As a B Corp committed to building a more inclusive and regenerative economy, we tend to take a broader, systems-based view of sustainability to include all choices that impact people and the planet. 

From a purely environmental perspective, there are four areas where digital products and services can contribute to an organization’s overall footprint:

• Design and technology choices made during a digital product or service’s creation, including where and how it is hosted.
• Data transfer to and from servers to end users.
• End user interactions.
• End-of-life practices used to sunset a product or service and its associated data.

Most of these specifically relate to reducing electricity use. However, design choices often impact a much broader range of potential circumstances. Choices made around shipping options, data privacy, or accessibility features, for example, impact how users engage with our products and services and can have unintended consequences. Similarly, choices about how servers are powered or whether we pay digital workers a living wage may not directly impact how end users engage with our products, but they still have consequences.  

All this said, in our initial research on digital sustainability, conducted in 2013, we identified four areas where organizations can improve the environmental impact of their digital products and services:

• Green Hosting: Where does the energy used to power your servers and data centers come from?
• Performance: How quickly do assets download and perform?
• Findability: How quickly can users find what they need?
• Usability: How efficiently can users perform tasks?

We have since broadened this view to include:

• Client/Project Ethos: Does your project positively contribute to a better future for all stakeholders? 
• Business Practices: How is your organization contributing to a more inclusive and regenerative future?

While the latter points might not seem immediately relevant, they are critical. If you create the fastest and most useful digital product that’s powered by renewable energy, for example, yet it promotes tobacco use or somehow enables slave labor, you’re kind of missing the point. 

Marquis: How do you envision computing and the Cloud evolving to become more sustainable/eco-friendly?

Frick: It is encouraging to see mainstream publications covering this topic more frequently. Similarly, larger organizations like Mozilla Foundation and the World Wide Web Foundation are beginning to consider sustainability as a factor influencing the internet’s future. Plus, large tech companies have led the charge to powering their data centers with renewable energy. Google, for example, is the largest non-utility investor in renewable energy in the world. 

Also, through groups like ClimateAction.Tech and publicly created documents like the Sustainable Web Manifesto, a burgeoning global community of designers and developers has emerged to address these issues head on, which is also encouraging. In 2013, Mightybytes created Ecograder and Sustainable Web Design to help website owners better understand the environmental impact of their digital products and services. We hope to redesign the former in 2021. We’re in the process of redesigning the latter with Wholegrain Digital, another B Corp agency that also created a website carbon calculator. Many similar projects, like Branch from ClimateAction.Tech, are now popping up left and right. It’s an exciting time to be a purpose-driven designer or developer. 

That said, to effectively combat climate change and establish these practices as the norm rather than the outlier, we need a much wider swath of society to understand and care about this work. Everything we do, digital or otherwise, has some sort of social or environmental impact. We need to act accordingly.  

Marquis: What are some examples of Mightybytes’ work with clients that reduce the impact of computing/IT on the environment?

Frick: We try to incorporate these principles into all our work. When we first floated the idea of more sustainable digital products and services by our clients, they were hesitant. If they considered digital sustainability at all — and most didn’t — they associated “green” solutions as being more expensive. This was back in 2012 and 2013.

However, nearly everyone could get behind digital solutions that were faster, more efficient, and better for end users. So we stopped leading with the green proposition and started incorporating these efficiency practices into our projects. Over time, we found a reliable and secure hosting partner that powered their data centers with renewable energy and can now say that 100% of the client projects we host are powered by renewable energy. 

Marquis: How does Mightybytes work with clients to make their websites more inclusive for users? 

Frick: First and foremost, we follow the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. While these guidelines are meant specifically to improve the experience of up to one billion global users who identify as having some sort of disability, they are good inclusive practices overall. Accessible websites work better for everyone, even search engines. Plus, many countries have laws that require website accessibility.

We also try to better understand potential stakeholders for any project. Our clients’ customers or users sit at the top of that list, but there are often others as well. As noted above, the planet is a stakeholder on every project. Also, website administrators are users too, for example, yet many projects fail to take their needs into consideration. By doing so, we save our clients time and money. We also alleviate the huge amounts of frustration that comes with using a clunky system. 

Finally, at every turn, we try to help our clients respect and prioritize their users. This includes designing for mobile first and promoting data privacy and digital product security. Overall, we aspire to craft high-performing digital experiences for our clients that are more inclusive, accessible, and better for people and the planet. I think that’s a good start.