The role of UX design in reducing the digital footprint (Green UX)
Does digital activity cause pollution? Does uploading a photo or conducting a Google search have an environmental impact?
While we might think the digital world is clean and harmless, the reality is quite different. Every click, every search, and every file we store in the cloud carries an energy cost and leaves a carbon footprint.
Often, the perception is that technology reduces our ecological impact by replacing paper with online transactions and data. However, the reality is different: the web and mobile applications significantly contribute to pollution, presenting a new challenge in terms of sustainability.
The digital impact in numbers
In 2020, it was estimated that there were 31 billion active digital devices worldwide, with exponential growth driven, among other things, by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study by Frédéric Bordage for Green IT.
This increase in devices has been accompanied by a rise in internet traffic, remote work, e-commerce, and digital entertainment, leading to soaring energy consumption and CO2 emissions associated with these activities, as highlighted in the article Green is the New Web. In fact, digital pollution accounted for 3.8% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 — a figure that surpasses civil aviation, according to a study published by ScienceDirect. If no measures are taken, this figure is expected to double by 2025, even surpassing the automotive sector.
According to the IEA, data centers and transmission networks are responsible for approximately 1% of global energy consumption.
For instance, the cloud, which seems intangible, actually relies on massive data centers that require enormous amounts of energy to store and process information, as well as constant cooling to maintain operations.
Faced with this reality, the concept of Green UX emerges as a response to the growing concern about the environmental impact of the digital world.
What is Green UX?
Green UX is an approach within user experience design that aims to minimize the environmental impact of digital products. It focuses on creating interfaces and services that are more sustainable by optimizing energy consumption, resource usage, and reducing the carbon footprint at every stage of a digital product’s lifecycle.
Green UX not only strives to enhance the user experience but also ensures that digital interactions — such as using apps, websites, and other platforms — are more environmentally friendly.
This approach advocates for:
- Reducing data overload.
- Optimizing storage.
- Using technological resources, such as servers and data centers, responsibly.
Tools to assess and reduce the environmental impact of digital products
Today, it is essential for brands and companies to consider the environmental impact of their websites. To this end, various tools are available to facilitate this evaluation:
- Ecoindex.fr: Measures the environmental performance of a webpage, providing valuable insights to identify areas where impact can be reduced. It also evaluates a site’s maturity based on best practices in web eco-design, helping designers and developers optimize their platforms for better performance and lower environmental impact.
- Websitecarbon.com: Analyzes the carbon footprint of a website and evaluates whether it is hosted on an eco-friendly server, providing information on which aspects of the site consume the most energy.
- GreenIT-Analysis: Combines the functionalities of Ecoindex.fr and Ecometer.org, offering a more comprehensive view of a site’s environmental impact.
What can businesses or brands do?
If you are a company or brand interested in reducing your carbon footprint, adopting Green UX strategies is a crucial step toward digital sustainability.
In addition to implementing more mindful design practices, companies can pursue B Corp certification, a globally recognized standard that evaluates a company’s social and environmental performance. This certification demonstrates a company’s commitment to sustainability and positions it as a leader in social and environmental responsibility.
In this way, the combination of Green UX and B Corp certification becomes a comprehensive strategy to reduce a company’s environmental impact while strengthening its brand image and aligning business values with a more sustainable model.
The future of design cannot ignore its environmental impact; on the contrary, it must lead the shift toward technology that respects both users and the environment. Now is the time for companies to embrace designs that help the planet and connect with users who value a commitment to sustainability.
This is a translation of the following article from our corporate website:
