Frequently Asked Questions

Who are we?

Formed in 2013, the Sustainable Web Design CG brings together likeminded individuals from a variety of backgrounds with a passion for Sustainability. The goal of this community is to establish a set of formal guidelines (similar to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) to help end-users, Web workers, stakeholders, educators, and policy makers, improve the environmental footprint of their products and services. Whilst we are not (yet) a standards making group, we are seeking to have our guidelines adopted as such as a working group within the W3C.

What are our goals?

If you're looking for something quick and friendly, read this overview of our community goals. You can also check out this introductory slideshow we put together. For something more technical and specific, check our charter which defines the scope of our activity.

What progress have we made?

We organized into five committee's: (UX Design, Web Development, Infrastructure, Product & Business, and Metrics. Each was tasked with creating a set of measurable guidelines for Web Sustainability in an open draft format. These documents have now been formalized, collated, and aligned into our Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) specification and supplementary documents. For a press release level overview of our work, check the W3C blog or our CG post.

How do I join the community group?

Join the Community Group by visiting our homepage, click "Join or leave this group" (to join) and login with your W3C credentials (You can sign up for an account).
Join the Slack group (to chat with other members) and be sure to join the general #sustainability channel.
If you have any questions, DM the committee leader or the community group chairs - we're a friendly bunch. (Honest!)

How can I keep up-to-date?

To keep up-to-date with our activity, make sure you're signed up to our mailing list (as this is where major announcements get posted). Additionally, Slack is used for posting a lot of Web Sustainability news and meeting announcements. It's also worth keeping a watchful eye on our Github repo as that's where our specification (and supplements) will be published.

How do I get involved?

All of the below are considered contributions (and will be recognized as such within the specification):

You can add useful Web sustainability links to our wiki References which will help us cultivate our library and improve the specification.
You can post anything of note or make specification feature requests / bug reports in the #sustainability Slack channel.
You can join our monthly meetings and offer your viewpoints or ideas.
You can provide feedback to our specification via the GitHub issue system.
You can view any drafts we're producing and tell others about it, implement the specification, or provide metrics.

It's a voluntary effort so your assistance is more than welcome!

What if I don't have much time?

Don't worry if you can't make a scheduled event or if you haven't got the time to contribute on a particular month. We're all contributing around our own schedules and often things conflict. On the main page of this wiki you'll find a list of minutes from our previous meetings (some even have video) so you should be able to catch up in your own time.

Who are the group leaders?

Community Group Chairs:

Tim Frick & Alexander Dawson

Committee Leaders:

UX Design: Thorsten Jonas & Anne Faubry
Web Development: Alexander Dawson
Infrastructure: Laurent Devernay
Metrics: Lukasz Mastalerz
Business & Product: Tim Frick