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Turning awareness into action with Climate UX

Thursday, January 16, 2025 • Climate UX Interest Group

This video is featured in the Climate UX Case Studies playlist.

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Turning awareness into action with Climate UX
Speakers: Tristin Oldani
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Summary

Watch this conversation with Tristin Oldani, UX strategist at Intel who is challenging how we think about digital sustainability. What happens when we truly understand the environmental impact of our digital products? In this candid conversation, Tristin shares her journey of turning climate awareness into actionable design solutions. From early experiments to implemented features, discover how UX design can drive meaningful environmental change in tech organisations. This is a story about curiosity, persistence, and finding practical ways to make our digital world more sustainable. Whether you're new to Climate UX or already working in this space, you'll find fresh insights and practical inspiration for your own journey.

Key Insights

  • Green software and sustainability teams often form and disband, reflecting corporate priorities and evolving leadership support.

  • Quiet allies in leadership can be as influential as outspoken champions in sustaining green initiatives.

  • Workshops that combine software and hardware perspectives help surface real-time energy impact awareness among teams.

  • Streaming platforms like Twitch demonstrate significant carbon footprints due to high energy and network usage.

  • Integrating green UX concepts into existing developer tools provides practical ways to enable climate-friendly choices without disrupting workflows.

  • Educating developers with simple tools and data, rather than overwhelming requirements, can foster gradual green adoption.

  • The terminology in sustainability is shifting from 'green' or 'eco' to 'efficient' to better resonate with users and developers.

  • AI and data center expansion present growing sustainability challenges, requiring targeted tools like carbon-aware scheduling.

  • Cost savings (finops) and energy savings often align, making financial arguments effective in promoting sustainable software practices.

  • Community collaboration, sharing case studies, and incremental actions are crucial for advancing sustainability in digital product design.

Notable Quotes

"I didn’t know green software existed. I didn’t know sustainability tech was a thing."

"There are allies that are very obvious and then there are quiet allies thinking about it but not fully living it."

"It’s difficult to see the impact in digital technology, but workshops help teams visualize energy use and timing."

"Twitch’s streaming for six hours to hundreds of people scored 51 out of 59 on our carbon impact scale."

"Developers have their heads down coding; they don’t think about grid intensity or carbon impact."

"We don’t talk about sustainable choices or green, we call it efficient to not get in the way."

"Money talks, and cost savings often align with energy savings — that’s why it matters."

"AI is only going to increase consumption, so we must find efficient ways to handle it."

"One day without TikTok in the US could save over 26,000 metric tons of CO2."

"If we all implement one small impactful thing in our projects, that can lead to meaningful change."

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