1. Introduction

a. Guide overview

Purpose of the guide

The first version of this guide was published in February 2021. At the time, the authors noticed that most of the available resources on sustainable web design were targeted at technical profiles such as developers.

The main goal of this guide is to compile and synthesize good design practices in ecodesign within a structured resource that is open to all thanks to its Creative Commons CC-By licence. You are therefore free to share, modify or reuse this content, provided you cite Designers Éthiques and its authors.

This guide is intended to be reflective rather than prescriptive. It offers angles of inquiry, as well as a substantial but non-exhaustive list of best practices, though it is worth noting that eco-design can lead to more radical and long-term solutions than those presented in this guide. You can find more angles of inquiry and references in section 10. Going further with the process.

Scope

This guide deals with the design of digital services (websites and mobile applications). It does not cover print, packaging, and other product design related topics. Communication and eco-branding are presented in Communicating without Greenwashing.

Although the guide focuses on environmental aspects, the impact of the digital sector on social and psychological matters should not be overlooked. We therefore included accessibility, attention-driven design and inclusivity as topics to bridge that gap. They are however not discussed in depth because these subjects are too broad to be treated comprehensively here, and would detract from the environmental focus of this guide.

Who is it for ?

This guide is primarily intended for user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) designers. Nevertheless, it might prove useful to any digital service designer (project manager, developer, product owner...) looking for more insight and resources on the topic.

Its ambition is to enable all designers, no matter their level of technical proficiency, to initiate an eco-design approach. We hope to provide the tools to empower anyone who wishes to do so to start such a process.

Contributions and changes in the guide

This guide will continue to evolve thanks to contributions from the community. If you wish to contribute, join the #projet_ecoconception channel on the Designers Ethiques' Slack.

This guide was written under the guidance of Aurélie Baton and Anne Faubry, UX designers and members of Designers Éthiques, and with the valuable support of contributors (Proofreading and contributions). It is the fruit of the combined expertise and research of designers and professionals who have been involved in eco-design for years.

b. What are the environmental stakes?

The digital sector has a very significant environmental impact:

• In 2020, it accounted for 2.1% to 3.9% of global greenhouse gas emissions (Explaining the environmental footprint of the digital sector). If we draw a parallel with the transport sector, the digital footprint is between that of all the world's airplanes (around 2%) and all the world's trucks (around 4%) (The Shift Project).
• Its share of emissions is growing fast. ADEME estimated that it could double by 2025 (an estimate made before the Covid-19 crisis).
• In addition to the much-discussed greenhouse gas emissions, it has a massive impact on the consumption of natural resources (including metals), water and energy during the manufacturing phase (Environmental footprint of the digital sector).
• There is no global substitution effect. We sometimes hear that digital technology replaces other, more polluting uses (transport, consumer goods, etc.) and is therefore more eco-friendly despite its footprint. However, since the advent of digital technology in the early 1990s, global greenhouse gas emissions have increased exponentially despite the dematerialization of the economy promised by digital technology (IPCC Publications). The impact of this sector simply compounds with the environmental burden from other sectors.

Eco-design has an influence on several planetary boundaries. Hence, when we talk about environmental impacts, we need to look not just at greenhouse gas emissions, but at all 9 planetary boundaries (French). The best practices in this guide take into account other factors such as the use of fresh water, changes in land use, the introduction of new materials into the environment and the integrity of the biosphere.

To take these boundaries into account, there are international standardized assessment tools, such as the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) defined by ISO 14040/44, and the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) defined by the European Commission (PDF).

To avoid these counter-productive consequences and their nefarious impact on the environment, it is crucial to adopt a systemic approach.

c. Where does the digital service designer fit in?

Digital technology generates 75% of its environmental impact during the manufacturing process. (The digital environmental footprint in France - ARCEP). Yet, hardware obsolescence is mainly caused by the software layer: applications, websites, software, video games... The heavier a digital service is, the more the user will need to upgrade to a more powerful device.

• In 30 years, the average lifespan of a computer has been divided by 3 (GreenIT).
• In 2021, 37% of French people buying a new smartphone reported doing so because the old one was no longer working properly (slow, buggy...) or because the operating system was out of date (Digital Technology Ownership and Usage - ARCEP).

For example, the median weight of a web page has gone from 14 kB in 1995, to 500 kB in 2011, to 2.1 MB in 2021 (HTTP Archive). To put this in perspective, the first Doom video game released in 1993 weighed in at 2.3 MB. Yet it featured 3D graphics, first-person shooter gameplay, a dozen different enemies, music, etc.

Behind the excessive weight of web pages lies the problem of the computing power required to run a digital service today. The larger the service and the more complex the web pages (DOM size), the greater the number of processor cycles and RAM required to generate them. The result is a gradual process of forced hardware renewal.

The principal lever for eco-design is therefore the reduction in the consumption of digital resources (RAM, processing power), which leads to a systemic reduction in all environmental impacts. By reducing the consumption of IT resources, the obsolescence of user, network and server equipment is reduced.

The designers are involved in the early stages of a project. This means they have a key role to play in reducing the impact of the digital services they design, and consequently hardware obsolescence.

d. Eco-designing digital services

Eco-design is a process of continuous improvements which aims to limit the use of IT resources. It is comprised of 3 levels: user terminal, network and data center. An eco-design approach must take into account digital services in their entirety.

Digital services include websites, mobile applications, software, APIs, hardware drivers, operating systems, recommendation systems, etc.

The recommendations in parts 1, 2, 3, 8 and 9 concern all digital services, while those in parts 4 to 7 are more specific to websites and mobile applications.

The eco-design of digital services comes from a standardized methodology (ISO - IEC 62430:2019 (French)).

Eco-design is achieved through an approach of restraint. The impact of digital technology on the environment is mainly due to the manufacturing of hardware. By bringing eco-design into digital services (applications, websites and software), we enable them to operate on older devices and less efficient networks. As a result, users don't experience a "slow" service, and are less tempted to renew their devices (smartphones, PCs, tablets). Existing infrastructures - networks, data centers, etc. - can be used for longer, without having to replace or add to them.

To discover the other benefits of eco-design (including social, financial, legal and image benefits), see the Convincing decision-makers section.