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== Top 10 Bold Ideas for a Sustainable Internet ==
=== Make Sustainability Engineering a career pathway ===
* Sustainability engineering needs to be an recognized professional specialization as well as a skill integrated across the engineering field.
* Similar to accsssibility in web development, sustainability should be foundational in any developer's practice. See: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility
* This means incorparting sustainability engineering into computer science courses and educational programs.
* And hiring for these roles and as well as upskilling existing developers in this area.
* The tech profession should pressure non-compliant sites to invest in their sustainability and to follow best practices in engineering.
=== Budget for 1 planet ===
* Learn to count carbon.
* Ensure your budgets account for carbon costs as well as financial ones.
* Encourage and teach others to set carbon budgets.
* Use the Platform, Packets and Process to categorize carbon costs for digital projects. https://planetfriendlyweb.org/
=== Get the magnitudes right ===
* It's not always intuitive what changes will result in the most environmental gains.
* Quantify and openly publish tests and measurements about the carbon footprint of your digital work. Compare that carbon cost of other activities, like flying or running a load of laundry. This helps build a better understanding of how "expensive" internet-related activities are.
* What is most effective depends on your context, and to win, we need to at least have an idea of what is effective to the nearest magnitude.
* https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~rcs/research/interactive_latency.html, but for carbon.
* Consider rebound effects.
=== Change the Aesthetic ===
* What is desirable in one era can seem outdated and undesirable years later when societal norms change. We should design and code for a new sensibility, one that is irresistably sustainable.
* Like it or not, tech is a fashion driven industry. Make the transition irresistable, and the everyday injustices outrageous.
* Make caring about climate impact part of being a good professional.
=== Ask the Right Questions ===
* We need a Joel test for Climate. A set of yes/no questions to ask when finding your next job, that show if an org is taking the climate crisis seriously.
* For example: "Does this company collaborate with the fossil fuel industry?"
** is there a public commitment to net zero emissions?
** is there a public timeline to reach net zero emissions?
** are there a public independent audit of progress on the way?
** is there disclosure of how much biz comes from projects to help extract fossil fuels?
=== Keep it in the Ground ===
* It is socially unacceptable to work on getting fossil fuel out of the ground in a climate emergency. We should not be working on projects to help extract fossil fuels, ever.
** Qn: "Does this project help get fossil fuels out the ground?
** A: Yes?
** You: Not working on it. End of discussion.
=== Use equity for equity ===
* The work you do isn't the only lever you have. Money works for you too.
* Shares in your pension delay climate action - ask and switch.
* Stock you are paid in can force discussions that need to happen - use it like Amazon for Climate do.
* Divest your pension. https://gofossilfree.org/resources-tools/
=== Serve the planet ===
* Like a national service, or a tour in something like the Peace Corp, but without the problematic colonial bits. Because climate is a planetary problem, that we solve en mass, not by relying on single heroic figures. Frame it accordingly.
=== Fight denial ===
* Understand that algorithms and misinformation play a key role in delaying climate action.
* Develop information recommendation algorithms in a way that favor science-based information.
* Optimise for truth, not clicks.
=== Other ideas ===
* Machine-readable Sustainability Transparency Reports
* The browser as a demonstration site for sustainability engineering
* The right to repair
== Meta mindsets ==
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