It’s great to see that following our digital sustainability consultancy work, Unilever has added a Digital Sustainability Statement to their global website, unilever.com!

By adopting digital sustainability strategies, Unilever highlights its dedication to environmental responsibility and corporate sustainability. It’s inspiring to witness a company of Unilever’s size prioritising digital sustainability alongside their broader sustainability efforts.

Our hope is that more companies will follow their lead, making digital sustainability statements as common as web accessibility ones!

Last month, US Democrats, led by Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, introduced the Artificial Intelligence Environmental Impacts Act of 2024. 

This bill – the first of its kind – seeks to address the environmental impact of generative AI, by directing the National Institute for Standards and Technology to collaborate with academia, industry and civil society to establish standards for assessing AI’s environmental impact, and to create a voluntary reporting framework for AI developers and operators.

It’s not yet clear whether this legislation will be passed, but we hope that it is, and that it inspires action globally.

Nature.com reported on this too and highlighted a statement by Open AI’s CEO, Sam Altman, that AI is facing a future energy crisis that can only be solved with an energy breakthrough. In other words, despite the AI industry mostly downplaying it’s environmental impact, they themselves are preparing for an energy crunch as their technology continues to scale. It’s essentially an open admission that AI poses a real threat to the decarbonisation of the energy system and that they don’t have a solution (yet). Hopefully legislation can be passed that helps set some environmental limits.

Climate change is undoubtedly a daunting issue, often challenging to navigate in a conversation. Yet, despite its complexity, there are proven methods for effectively communicating about it, while inspiring meaningful climate action. One such approach is through the art of storytelling—specifically, action-based storytelling.

When we share our stories of climate action, we not only demonstrate our efforts to address the issue but also inspire action within our communities. This storytelling technique leverages our natural love for narratives, a trait ingrained in our human nature since ancient times. Our brains are wired for stories to learn from others, and even today, action-based stories have a unique ability to inspire us and motivate us to take similar steps, with the simple yet powerful thought: ‘if they can do it, so can I’.

So, the next time you’re wondering how to combat climate change, perhaps reflecting on the actions you’re already taking could serve as a powerful starting point. We can embrace the power of storytelling to catalyse collective action and pave the way for a brighter, more sustainable future.

Earlier this month (16th March) saw the fourth annual Digital Cleanup Day. Launched in 2020 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, this global event is  dedicated to raising awareness of digital waste and its impact on the environment.

We celebrated this event with a ‘Digital Declutter Week’ over on Instagram, where we shared daily tips to clean-up your business and personal digital footprint, from the Digital Declutter website that we created in partnership with Business Declares.

If you’re not already aware of this resource, do check it out! It provides tips on everything from how to clean up your cloud storage, to tips on hardware procurement.

This month we’re doing something a bit different for our Book of the month section.

Some of you may already be aware of the news that my publisher, A Book Apart, has announced that they will no longer be publishing any new titles.

I chose to write my book with A Book Apart for many reasons, one of which was how much their mission aligned with the reasons we started Wholegrain – a desire for a better web. In their own words,

“Fourteen years ago, we began with a simple yet powerful idea: to create brief books for people who want to make a better web. Since publishing book No. 1, HTML5 for Web Designers, we’ve continuously developed our processes and worked with wildly talented authors and editors.” 

I’ve read so many titles from A Book Apart and highly recommend them all – every title presents essential information in an engaging way, and while I’m sad they won’t be publishing any new titles, their existing titles (including mine) won’t be going anywhere! You will still be able to buy A Book Apart titles from  abookapart.com while their stocks last – so I do encourage you to buy from there! After that, you will be able to buy their titles from most online retailers, including Bookshop.org and Barnes & Noble (US), Blackwell’s (UK), Booktopia (AU), Thalia (DE).

Their collection offers so much guidance for the creation of a better web and I hope that they continue to educate and inspire for many years to come.

If you’re interested in being part of the Wholegrain Digital team, we’re always happy to hear from individuals dedicated to making a difference in the world via digital sustainability.

If you don’t fit the roles advertised at any time, you’re always welcome to get in touch with the team by replying to this newsletter to learn more about us and explore options in a casual conversation.