When choosing the technology for our company, we wanted to ensure that we were following our values and principles. With the main one for these decisions being walking our talk. With so many technology choices available, generally a new business choosing products that are easy to use and setup, with minimal cost to begin with. However, as a digital sustainability training and consultancy firm, we knew we needed to go a step beyond the norm. We needed to be asking: What are the sustainable tech choices?
For example, we want to use open source technology as much as possible. We believe in thinking holistically about environmental impact. Data security and sovereignty, especially with regards to the current political climate with the US, must also be considered. So, these decisions get exponentially harder! However, we knew we needed to be balancing all of our needs, as well as being pragmatic for ourselves and our ecosystem. We came to terms with AI, which does have environmental and social cost, but it can also reduce your footprint and increase your ROI. We try to use it responsibly, when there is true value to be added by its use.
Overall, making sustainable tech choices is hard. Even finding out the data is difficult. But, as with all decisions – deciding what is a priority for your choice, is a good starting point. How much leeway will you give for each decision point? Are you willing to use something that is not aligned with your values just to get started?