Environmental ethics in design.
The way we design products influence the environment, more than we think.
Every day we wake up, take a shower, wear some clothes, eat breakfast and go to work. We rely on apps to pay our bills, buy things, order food and commute to work.
We rarely think about how many greenhouse gasses we put into the atmosphere each time we buy something or use something.
To be honest, we shouldn’t.
It’s hard to grasp the complexity of big industries infrastructure, goods production cycles and logistics. You can easily give yourself a headache trying to understand how many greenhouse gasses emitted to provide us with electricity, grow and deliver food to our homes or heat water in the shower.
The Sheer size and complexity of a problem is holding us from being conscious consumers and care about the environment in a meaningful and effective way.
But it shouldn’t be that way.
🤳 Caring about the environment shouldn’t be harder than pressing a button or selecting a check box.
There is an app for everything. What if apps that provide us with a daily routine can help us to make more environmentally friendly choices. Provide useful information depends on the context and our activities. When we order food, going to work, using electricity at homes, planning a trip or shopping.
Groceries.
When food is wasted, all the energy, resources, and money that went into producing, processing, packaging, and transporting it are wasted too.
🍏 30–40% of all food produced worldwide is wasted across the supply chain.
But the digital product can help us reduce it:
- Todo apps can provide smart grocery shopping lists.
- Restaurants search app can give info about places with local food.
- Food delivery app can help to order the right amount.
- Smart fridges can provide more information on food inside of it.
Diet.
Agriculture is contributing to 9% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. More than 80% of farmland is used for livestock, but it produces just 18% of food calories and 37% of protein.
🐮 If cattle were their own nation, they would be the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
Doesn’t mean we should stop eating meat:
- Calorie count app can provide additional information on red meat consumption.
- Recipe apps can help people to discover alternative dishes with reduced red meat amount.
- Supermarket apps can help people buy more carbon-neutral food and save money. Yes, red meat is expensive.
Commuting.
If an average worker avoided using their car to commute just two days per week, greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by approximately 1,600 pounds per year, per individual.
🚗 Transportation is contributing to 29% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
While switching to electric transportation is a long process, there are some things we can do today:
- Navigation apps can encourage people to take walking and cycling routes in cities.
- Car-sharing apps can advertise more eco-friendly options of commuting like Uber shuttle.
- Job seeking platforms can help people find remote jobs or jobs closer to their homes.
- Communication apps can help to avoid unnecessary meetings that could be taken online or encourage people to take work-from-home hours.
Household.
Homes and commercial buildings use large amounts of energy for heating, cooling, lighting, and other functions. They accounted for 11.6% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
🏭 Coal is still a major player in electricity production and responsible for 67.9% of CO2 emissions from the sector.
One of the options to reduce the carbon footprint is to make electricity consumption more efficient:
- Smart home apps can provide useful tips on how to save electricity, water and heat.
- Personal finance app can help people reduce household bills.
- Long-term apartment rental apps can promote apartments with the effective use of space, electricity and water.
Travel.
Today, some 20,000 aeroplanes are in service around the world. With upwards of 50,000 planes expected to take to the skies by 2040.
✈️ Flying contributes around 2.5% of global emissions.
Maybe it’s time to take our vacation planning more seriously:
- Travel agency apps can suggest less carbon-heavy vacations.
- Hotel booking apps can promote eco-friendly hotels and hostels.
- Flight booking apps can help people take short or more efficient flights with less CO2 emissions.
Shopping.
Direct industrial greenhouse gas emissions accounted for 22.2% of total U.S. emissions, making it the third-largest contributor after the Transportation and Electricity sectors.
👕 The fashion industry is responsible for around 5% of all manmade greenhouse gas emissions — more than aviation and shipping combined.
It’s not like we should stop wearing t-shirts or buy iPhones. It’s about how we buy, use and reuses stuff more wisely:
- Marketplaces can provide shipping options when speed does not matter to a customer, to reduce ‘dry runs’ of trucks and cars on delivery.
- Marketplaces can promote vendors with sustainable and eco-friendly production cycles.
- Banking apps can provide environmental reports based on users shopping spendings.
- Online stores can provide info on how people can recycle the goods they buy, including electronic devices.
- Coffeeshop apps can encourage people to come with their own cups instead of using plastic ones.
- Running apps can help people participate in trash cleaning runs.
- Supermarket apps can remind people to take a bag next time instead of using plastic bags.
- Marketplaces can provide features to share clothes you don’t use with others or how to fix clothes instead of buying new.
And so much more.
A Product Design Challenge.
As product designers, managers and developers, we are responsible for the features we deliver to our users. We should think harder about how our apps influence the environment and how we can help people to switch to a sustainable lifestyle.
Our team at Productdesign.tips are announcing a product design challenge. It’s a social project, tailored to encourage Product, UI and UX designers try to solve problems related to the environment. We are launching soon. Please use the form below to subscribe for updates.
Information sources.
Overall by industries:
Food waste:
- Drawdown summary on a food waste
- Report on “Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations” on Food wastage footprint & Climate Change
- Washington Post — “The enormous carbon footprint of food that we never even eat”
Diet:
- New Your Times — “Your Questions About Food and Climate Change, Answered”
- 6 Pressing Questions About Beef and Climate Change, Answered
- The Guardian — “Huge reduction in meat-eating ‘essential’ to avoid climate breakdown”
- Drawdown report on a plant-rich diet
Transportation:
- Transportation | Federal Green Challenge (FGC) | US EPA
- World Economic Forum article “The Netherlands is paying people to cycle to work”
- Drawdown report on “Walkable cities”
- Drawdown report on “Electric bikes”
- Drawdown report on “Ridesharing”
- The Vice — The Radical Plan to Save the Planet by Working Less
Travel:
- Here’s why one airline is encouraging people not to fly
- Drawdown report on “Airplaens”
- The Guardian — Why I only take one holiday flight a year
Housekeeping:
Shopping:
- Purchasing | Federal Green Challenge (FGC) | US EPA
- Can fashion stop climate change?
- Useless kit — to reuse more wisely
- Four strategies to tackle the carbon footprint of plastic
