Planet Friendly Web Guide
An Open Project Spotlight
Chris Adams (@mrchrisadams) is a environmentally focused product manager and UX consultant, with prior background in devops, and both front and backend development. Chris was selected to join our current round of Mozilla Open Leaders with his project, Planet Friendly Web Guide.
I interviewed Chris to learn more about the Planet Friendly Web Guide and how you can help.
What is Planet Friendly Web Guide?
The planet friendly web guide is an open source, freely available guide for people who build the web, to help them learn how to do so in the most environmentally sustainable way.
Why did you start Planet Friendly Web Guide?
I started this project because there is a lot of overlap between making digital products that work well, and ones that work well for the planet, and this isn’t that well known at the moment. Also. because the web evolves as fast as it does, and because there is so much variety in terms of platforms and ecosystems, an open approach, where anyone could contribute seemed the only feasible way to do this.
How does my online life impact the environment?
To have an online life, we need servers. And these servers need electricity. And right now, this electricity overwhelmingly comes from burning coal. As a result of this, the IT sector is now responsible for more CO2 emissions than aviation, and is growing more than twice as quickly.
The thing is, it doesn’t need to be this way. The steps you take to reduce the emissions from digital products you use in your online life are the same ones you typically would take to end up with faster loading sites, have a better thought through architectures, and make research with users cheaper. The change needed to reduce the environmental impact of the web is much lower than say, changing aviation, or agriculture.
What are you most proud of accomplishing at MozFest?
I think during my (somewhat spontaneous) session, getting people from Automattic, who make Wordpress, which powers 29% of the internet) and and Greenpeace (behind the Clicking Clean Campaign) around the same table to talk about the steps available was a highlight for me.
What challenges have you faced working on this project?
It’s important to get access to rigorous data when creating any kind of guide and learning materials, and I because I work mainly as a software developer and product manager rather than being part of an academic institution, gaining access to academic research is a real pain.
Also juggling this with other paid work over has been a continual challenge. I have no real experience with fundraising, so I have to end up finance the time from other client work, which takes time away from being able to work on the project.
How has your project been impacted by Mozilla Open Leaders?
The accountability of a mentor has been useful, as well as the having access to the network of Mozillians. Having the ideas referenced in the Internet Health Report, and fit into Mozilla’s 5 pillars has been a huge boost too.
How can others help you continue the work on Planet Friendly Web Guide?
There’s a whole range of ways you can help, depending on your interests and skillsets, from helping conduct research interviews, to writing, to helping build software to track the impact of a digital product, right down to simply making which parts of the guide you’d like to read more about, or sharing links to useful research.
If you’re interested, there’s a useful contributors page you can visit, and I’d love to hear from you. You don’t need to be an expert, just interested!
What meme or gif best represents your project?
Hmm… probably the lorax -
Mozilla Open Leaders offers mentorship and training on working open. Join a cohort of project leads fueling the Internet Health movement. Receive mentorship and training through the Mozilla community in this 14-week online program on working open.
