Global warming and the Paris agreement are forcing all sectors to review their processes in order to achieve the objective of carbon neutrality in three decades time. Digital is no exception to this trend and must also aim for greater sobriety right now. Already, the digital industry is being asked about the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Designing for humans leads us, by principle, to design with the planet in mind. That’s why designers and information architects should be aware of the consequences of each of their choices in terms of energy consumption and emissions. Participating in this workshop, designers will discover the order of magnitude of the impact their designs yield. They will gain literacy in circular economy principles and toolkits to make more informed decisions.

On a practical note, participants will start measuring the impact of their own practice. Indeed, when designing digital products, we are far removed from the actual consumption and it is a daunting exercise to start. Moving from what is already in use to future projects, this questioning should ideally be initiated during the ideation phase to align all stakeholders and project team members on the “bigger stakes“ at hand. As current frameworks and toolkits may require some tweaking to adapt them to fully digital services, we will share some of the findings we have collected in our practices.