Each Design Is a Manifesto for the Future
summary
Claims are concrete and measurable: 80% of a product’s emissions are decided in design, testing shows swapping a decorative background video for a static image saves ~1 ton CO2/year on a university page, switching PNG/JPEG to WEBP saves ~25 tons/year, and limiting uploads plus smarter image delivery cuts terabytes of wasted traffic and hundreds to thousands of euros. Tools and processes exist: auto‑depublish low‑traffic pages, W3C sustainable web guidance, impact canvases; warnings include AI costs (≈1 kg CO2 per 230 prompts) and default data‑use opt‑ins.
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chapters (12)
- 0:00Introduction
- 3:06Digital sustainability urgency
- 7:43Carbon impact of digital products
- 12:17Business case for sustainable design
- 16:28AI and data center environmental cost
- 21:06Design exclusion and accessibility gaps
- 25:15Ethical and social costs of AI
- 30:13Generative AI limitations and risks
- 35:54Technology and inequality
- 38:43Narratives over data-driven illusions
- 43:05Design decisions shape the future
- 44:33Call to action
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