Timi Wahalahti, developer and WordPress enthusiast, approaches an uncomfortable subject for many in the WordPress community – we don’t talk about climate change enough. I mean, we are a WordPress agency, and we do – but unfortunately we are still in the minority within the community. In his piece, Timi acknowledges that the WordPress community tends to avoid politically divisive subjects, but points out that climate change is not a political issue, it’s a people issue, and one for which we are all responsible.

After calling out the community and making some suggestions, some community members responded to Timi’s post with examples of where significant efforts have been made, which is great. While no doubt incomplete, it is a rather short list of actions from one of the world’s largest open source communities. Timi is right – we need to do more!

We’ve raised the issue of e-waste many times before in this newsletter, with laptops and mobile devices being the biggest culprits, needing to be replaced more often that we’d like. As I’ve said before, I try not to change my laptop too often but most have a life of only a few years. I am excited to finally see a company really addressing this.

Framework was set up by people who want to address the e-waste issue, by creating laptops that can be be upgraded, customised, and repaired and don’t lose anything in aesthetics. They also have a ‘D.I.Y’ version if you’d prefer to build your own.

Framework is the only company I’m aware of doing this at the moment, but I really hope to see others follow suit in due course, until all devices are designed with a more circular economy in mind. They’re launching first in the US and I hope they arrive in the UK before this laptop dies!

As businesses around the world are becoming more and more aware of the environmental impact of their work, big tech has made lots of public announcements about their commitment to more sustainable practices. We’ve shared some of these promises in this newsletter, and are optimistic about the future. However, without regular accountability (such as is offered by  B Corp certification, for example), how can we be sure that these promises are not just words – telling the public what we want to hear, and only doing the minimum towards these ambitious goals?

In this video from Earth Day, Russell Brand looks at corporate ‘greenwashing’, questioning the veracity of claims made by large tech companies, and asking whether the focus on broad claims are actually covering up less desirable practices. I’m aware that Russell Brand is a somewhat polarising character and some of you might cringe at this inclusion in the newsletter, but it’s an interesting (and somewhat amusing) perspective. I’d love to you what you think!

Fifty miles north of London, John Clare country has now become part of the largest concentration of logistics and distribution operations in Europe. This area is known as the ‘Golden Triangle’ of logistics – home to twice as much warehouse space as Greater London, Wales, and Scotland combined. If you buy something online in the UK, it almost certainly passes through there.

We all know (I hope!) that online shopping has a physical environmental footprint but the extent of that footprint is mostly hidden, unless you live near one of these enormous distribution parks. To give an idea of the size of the impact, every £1 billion spent online demands 1.3 million square feet of further warehousing. If we continue to shop online at the current rates, the environmental cost will be astronomical.

I am increasingly of the view that far from “dematerialising” our economy, digital tech has become one of the biggest accelerants of consumption.

The answer, as it’s always been, is to consume less, buy local and mindfully, but society doesn’t make this easy, and lockdown hasn’t helped.

Resisting the Attention Economy