Frameworks
There are many other frameworks describing sustainable products, services, and workflows in other areas of design, a few of which are listed here:
However, there are many useful ideas in the following frameworks:
- The 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)
- Sustainability Helix
- Cradle2Cradle
- Biomimicry
- The Living Principles
- Wendy Jedlicka’s Books
One goal of the Sustainable Web Design Group is to adapt useful features from these frameworks into a sustainability framework specific to the web.
Here is a possible breakdown of sustainable principles for the web, game and interactive world, adapted from the list developed by Nathan Shredoff in his book, Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must Be Sustainable:
| General Sustainability Principle | Sustainable Web Design Goals |
|---|---|
| Make meaningful products | Make websites that are have real value, not fashion or tech-tricks |
| Easy design rollback | Iterative or Agile design workflow |
| Source Renewable Materials | Switch to a “Green” webhost |
| Design products to work in the future | Implement classic design strategies |
| Design with the user in mind | Create effective User Experience (UX) |
| Ensure democratic access | Build accessible, responsive websites |
| Interchangable Parts | Apply standards-based design |
| Minimize energy and resource consumption | Web Performance Optimization (WPO) |
| Don’t corrupt the virtual system | Search Engine Optimization (SEO) |
Another possible formulation for sustainable web design comes from the Permaculture movement. Here is a list from the Staydiligent blog with some additions by myself:
| Permaculture Sustainability Principle | Sustainable Web Design Goals |
|---|---|
| Observe and Interact | Build sites as part of an interdependent community |
| Catch and store energy | Cache information, update sites rather the build completely new ones |
| Obtain a yield | The site should provide positive value to the client, and larger web community, not a time or money sink |
| Apply self-regulation and accept feedback | The site should have “reporter” technology for use, efficiency and ultimately carbon footprint can be tracked and used for revisions |
| Use and value renewable resources and services | Use efficient virtual services (e.g. green webhosts) |
| Produce no waste | Sites should be steady-state, not causing an accumulation of e-junk (files, stored data) in themselves or on the Internet |
| Design from patterns to details | Start with group-design techniques like Progressive Enhancement |
| Integrate rather than segregate | Connect your site to others, and create value by interconnection of websites instead of portal-style content provisions |
| Use small & slow solutions | Design for the low end first, instead of starting with the bleeding edge |
| Use & value diversity | Use local designers, developers, webhosts of big “cloud” services with low green scores |
| Use edges & value the marginal | Support communication at the edges – old browsers, platforms, slow networks |
| Creatively use & respond to change | Use, don’t avoid new technologies that promise sustainability, e.g. imageless design with CSS |
-Pete Markiewicz
Hi – Are there any published guidelines for Digital Accessibility Design (Web and Apps) that the WC3 has?
I’m looking to incorporate existing guidelines into our design/dev teams tool set. I prefer to use something that might exist already from a creditable organization like WC3.
We already have great guidelines for Accessibility but having a hard time find this for Sustainability.
Hi Greg, there aren’t any bona fide standards (yet) for sustainable web design. However, that’s what this group is meant to explore. I think many members would like to see guidelines officially submitted to the W3C for consideration, similar to what’s been done with digital accessibility and WCAG.
In the meantime, Mightybytes and Wholegrain Digital, two B Corp agencies, partnered to create this site:
https://sustainablewebdesign.org/
It breaks down digital sustainability principles into several core categories: design, development, hosting, content & marketing, project ethos, and business operations.
It also includes links to many resources for further in-depth reading. We welcome suggestions on additional strategies as well.
I hope that’s helpful.
This is definitely the best source. You can also check older posts on my blog, https://sustainablevirtualdesign.wordpress.com