Six principles for sustainable computing

written with Zaza Zuilhof

Zaza and I, as interaction designers, have been reflecting on how the material that we are crafting is changing. We love what we do, but we feel a disconnect between the path where technology is headed and where we want it to go instead.

In this document we are collecting a draft of our principles to guide us into making computing sustainable, not just environmentally, but also socially and ethically.

1. Elevate the human condition
Sustainable computing always asks if it needs to exist first. Does it meaningfully extend or augment the human intellect? Or would it replace or disrupt a valuable human experience? In the creation of sustainable computing, careful consideration is given to forecasting and understanding the externalities of the software itself and services offered by it. Sustainable computing elevates the human condition, it never belittles it.

2. Celebrate communal experiences
Sustainable computing focuses on fostering connections among people who share a common physical space. Sustainable computing facilitates collaboration, communication, and knowledge exchange without capturing our attention away from our physical surroundings. A new set of interfaces are developed within sustainable computing to enable experiences beyond personal computing, empowering co-presence rather than disrupting it.

3. Minimize impact
Sustainable computing aims to minimize energy consumption and the overall environmental impact of digital technology by optimizing code, eliminating unnecessary computations and reducing reliance on the internet and large server farms with an offline first mentality.

4. Strive for longevity
Sustainable computing opposes planned obsolescence and promotes the development of software and hardware designed to endure. Sustainable computing prioritizes long term relevance over short term trends. By minimizing frequent updates, that are never mandatory, and avoiding deliberate incompatibility, this principle reduces electronic waste and encourages software that can be used for an extended period.

5. Cultivate understanding
Sustainable computing is honest in its behavior and action. It complements the effectiveness and convenience of predictive algorithms and machine learning with a focus on making the means of empowering us intelligible. Intelligible computing can be studied and understood.

6. Inspire tinkering
Sustainable computing is architected to be well designed and accessible on the surface, but extensible and customizable under the hood. Sustainable computing supports us in coping with situations where technology is not doing the (right) job and thus enable us to modify and change that piece of software to serve our own needs. Sustainable computing grows with us and is a complement to long lasting hardware.

This document is a work in progress and we hope that this will spark a conversation.

Last updated Dec 27 2023