When I’m at my most positive and hopeful, I can persuade myself more easily that it doesn’t matter how I got to the situation I’m in. What matters is taking the right actions to move to the situation I want to be in.
When I first became aware of the environmental impact of digital infrastructure it sent me down a new path. One that took in learning about digital sustainability, sustainable web design and ultimately to Wholegrain Digital. It was, and still is, exciting to be involved in an emergent,dynamic and important movement.
All work in sustainability ultimately boils down to the question “how do we get from where we are to a more sustainable future”. The answers to that question can come in the form of different technologies, methodologies, mind sets, ways of doing business and many, many more.
Increasingly I’m persuaded that the stories we tell about how we make those moves to a better future are just as important as the methods we’ll use. I think a lot of sustainability has a PR problem. Some of that comes from efforts to push counter narratives from actors intent on maintaining the status quo. But I also think a strong enough, coherent story has been told about how the human race can thrive within planetary boundaries.
More gifted writers than me share this feeling. I recently finished the novel “Any Human Power” by Manda Scott.
The novel looks at everything that is wrong with the world (a laundry list of issues including politics, finance, climate change, toxic masculinity, porn, misogyny, inequality) and ponders how we might fix it. As if that’s not enough there’s some Norse mythology and spirituality thrown in for good measure. It’s like Ministry for the Future and the Thor:Love and Thunder script got merged together, but in a good way.
In the author’s note at the end of the book Manda introduces the idea of Thrutopian writing. If utopian fiction says “Isn’t it nice here?” and dystopian fiction asks “how the hell did we get here?”, thrutopian writing ponders where we are at present and what a route map to a better future might look like.
We’re writing our own thrutopian story in digital sustainability
I believe that digital sustainability is inherently thrutopian in its principles. At present the ICT sector accounts for an increasing level of global CO2 output as well as metal, mineral, land and water usage. Exactly how damaging the ICT sector is still being defined but knowledge and research is increasing. That knowledge allows for a clearer picture of the current situation and how things can improve. We know where we are and need to tell the story of how we get there.
Look at hosting from a thrutopian point of view. At present we store and retain too much data in inefficient, fossil fuel powered centres. We want to move to a clean powered, ultra efficient system. How might we get there?
We can:
- encourage more mindful storage and data retention policies
- campaign for better digital privacy laws to reduce data retention
- holistically consider our browsing habits and digital consumption rates and ultimately reduce our time online
- prioritise renewably powered hosting provided by ethical organisations
- imagine and support new collaborations and innovations to put the heat from servers to good use
Those steps are a very simplified version but a thrutopian vision, nevertheless.
We can and should tell better stories about all elements of the internet. Wholegrain tells thrutopian stories in every pitch and proposal. We assess what a site or platform looks like now and propose people and planet friendly alternatives. Alternatives without set limitations but reimagined possibilities inline with an organisation’s goals.
I think thrutopian stories and ideals have the potential to change minds and shift behaviours. I think the digital sustainability movement is doing amazing work and accelerating fast. But as an industry we tell far fewer stories than the websites we build and control.
I will follow up this article with a second that poses the question:
“Is the digital sustainability industry too preoccupied with optimising platforms for content and not looking carefully enough at the content itself?”
What do you think about thrutopian stories? Let me know at [email protected].
Andy