Responsible Digital Progress · An open-source checklist to help you combine digitalisation with sustainability.
Responsible Digital Practices
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You are using or providing AI services with a technological stack aligned with the ongoing challenges for the environment, using reasonable resources while protecting data and anticipating possible regulations. It is not possible to avoid AI today, so the question is not if it should be used or not. It's how and when is it relevant to use it.
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You are able to communicate properly, efficiently, and with transparency about your choices and actions regarding sustainability, whether it's on social media, or through internal channels.
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Your digital products and services are accessible to all. As of today, about 10% of Swiss residents are struggling with digital service, and only 2% of websites are accessible following the WCAG AA norms.
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Your team is capable of conceiving friendlier digital products for the planet without compromising UX and conversion.
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As the median webpage is now 10 times heavier compared to the median webpage in 2012, you know where and how to optimize your digital products to make them lighter, faster, and long-lasting.
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Your IT infrastructures are using less resources, managed responsibly either by yourself or by a provider engaged for ecology.
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If you had to start implementing responsible digital practices tomorrow, you would know where to start and how to execute your plan.
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If you had to change your information system tomorrow, you would be able to choose hardware and software that fit best your needs and the needs of the planet without compromising your activities.
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You can evaluate the carbon footprint reduction of different responsible digital strategies to make the right choice.
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You have a digital-related policy such as a right to disconnect for your employee's wellbeing. Digital stress due to hyperconnectivity can lead to lower efficiency but more importantly to mental health issues up to burnout.
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You have activities to raise awareness of your collaborators, activate behavior changes, and create projects to improve your level of sustainability with them of your company.
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You are currently on a path to getting a certification from entities such as ISO, B-Corp, or the Institute of Sustainable IT.
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Your business model is taking the UN's Sustainable Development Goals into consideration.
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You have sustainability indicators and guidelines related to your activities and your service provider's activities.
Flourishing with long-lasting digital solutions aligned with the environment is possible. Implementing responsible digital practices in your activities is not only about the environment. It is a mid to long term investment for your business.
Sustainable IT practices can lower expenses by aiming to improve process efficiency with automation notably. Cost reductions can also happen by tweaking your information system, choosing the right providers, or optimizing your product's code and design leading to faster products and better user experience for conversion.
Including the robustness of your systems as a performance metric will allow your business to build long-lasting products. On the software side, this can be translated with improved security and data privacy notably. On the hardware side, it is worth mentioning the fight against perceived and planned obsolescence by notably choosing long-lasting, performant, and repairable products which will reduce costs as well.
Proactively preparing your company for future regulations can prevent the likelihood of having fines and legal issues, just as well as improve trust around your business activities.
A strong reputation for digital ethics communicated with transparency can build trust and distinguish your brand from competitors as digital responsibility is growing into a key factor in business partnerships and procurement decisions.
Fitting easily in your social responsibility strategy, Sustainable IT practices improve your collaborator's well-being, as well as our consumers with fast, accessible, and inclusive digital services, not to mention all the people involved by digital pollution in the life cycle of hardware.
Whether it's because you changed reduced your energy consumption, made economies with automation, or improved the accessibility of your services (to mention only 3 examples), taking into account the people and the planet in your business will co-benefit the environment.