Top Tips

Physical devices and hardware:

• When purchasing new devices look at the environmental and ethical credentials of manufacturers and suppliers and the devices they provide e.g. on chemicals, rare earth minerals, workers’ rights, resource and energy efficiency, renewable energy etc.
• Choose or ask for the most energy efficient options or solutions.
• Choose or ask for refurbished or remanufactured devices or solutions.
• Ask suppliers what take back and refurbishment options they offer.
• Use devices for longer and get them repaired or upgraded before buying new ones. Check out the ifxit repairability rating for smartphones, laptops and tablets.
• Keep a track of how much WEEE you generate and how this is disposed of.
• Donate old equipment where possible and dispose of the rest responsibly, using companies with strong ethical and environmental credentials.
• Work out how much energy your devices and hardware use, and how much this contributes to overall energy use.
• Introduce good energy practice for use of devices and hardware e.g. standby, eco-mode, shut-down etc.
• Provide information on good energy practice for home working.

Websites:

• Switch to website hosting and servers which run on renewable energy. Check out Supercool’s The Mysteries of Green Web Hosting. Check if your website runs on green energy (and access other tools) using the Green Web Foundation.
• Work with agencies or designers with strong environmental credentials or committed to taking positive environmental action and ask them to build in sustainability and energy efficiency principles from the start.
• Reduce the data load of your website e.g. avoid using lots of video or image content, reduce video and image size, remove unused assets, use darker colours and system fonts.
• Share and communicate what you are doing to make your website greener.
• Provide users of your website with information on how they can access and use it in a more energy-efficient way.

Digital data and content:

• Do a digital declutter and rationalise data volumes (e.g. digital files and archives) stored on servers, in the cloud or data centres, using file-sharing apps or software and on individual computers. Check out Wholegrain Digital’s Digital Declutter for Businesses.
• Manage your emails more efficiently e.g. update your database regularly, send links in emails rather than attaching large files, delete emails you don’t need and unsubscribe from email newsletters and mailing lists you don’t read.
• Reduce the digital load of your social media e.g. be succinct, use video, images and GIFs sparingly, share old content.
• Ask your digital service providers (e.g. data centres, cloud service providers e-learning content or solution providers) what their environmental credentials are, what type of energy their services run on and how they can help you to understand and reduce the impact of the digital content you provide. If you are choosing between providers, you can see a comparison between large cloud services Microsoft, AWS and Google here.
• Share and communicate what you are doing to make reduce the impact of your digital content.
• Provide those who use your digital content with information on what they can do to access the content in a more energy-efficient way e.g. access on smaller devices, stream via Wi-Fi rather than mobile data, watch in SD rather than HD, lower screen brightness.
• Consider measuring your digital footprint (see the tools linked below, e.g. from the Networked Condition), though note this is a developing area and depends on what data you can get. For the major cloud providers, you can find your carbon footprint with Google, Microsoft Azure and AWS.

Online meetings, events and publications:

• Look at your options for doing more on-line or hybrid meetings and events instead of in person.
• Look at your options for moving from print to online publications and content.
• Ask agencies and designers to build in sustainability and energy efficiency in the design of digital content and publications from the start.

Use search engines with strong ethical or environmental credentials e.g. Ecosia or Ocean Hero.