GENERAL:

• United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Database – data on each of the 17 goals, and their respective targets and indicators. Guiding the spaces where development of digital products and services can provide most impact.

• The Stockholm Resilience Centre — research into sustainable futures and practice from the University of Stockholm, including the influential research on planetary boundaries.

• The New European Bauhaus — launched by the European Commission in 2020 as an interdisciplinary initiative to help deliver the European Green Deal.

• The Shift Project — research and advocacy to promote a shift towards a low-carbon digital economy. Their work looks at the broader impact of digital on the environment.

• The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) — an accountancy framework that emphasises the balance between people, plant, and profit. Encouraging designers to create products that are eco-friendly, while also being socially and economically beneficial.

• Normative — carbon accounting, helping organisations measure and reduce their carbon emissions. They provide insights and data to support sustainable decision-making.

• Decoding Sustainable AI vs AI for Sustainability — A short paper from KPMG that unpacks often mixed themes of reducing the impact of AI adoption and using AI as part of ESG strategies.

• Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector — a report by the IEA outlines a strategy for the energy sector to limit global warming in line with the Paris Agreement.

• Dezeen’s Sustainable Design section features architecture and sustainable design solutions, highlighting materials, energy-efficiency and the built environments.

INFLUENTIAL THINKING:

• Circular Design Guide — A comprehensive guide by IDEO and Ellen MacArthur Foundation for integrating circular economy principles into product design.

• Cradle to Cradle — William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s groundbreaking work that advocates for a closed-loop system, where end-of-life products are fully recycled or biodegrade. This is the basis for The C2C Certified Product Program.

• The Future Observatory Journal from the Design Museum publishes actionable and forward-thinking narratives about design and sustainability.

• Fjord: Systems Thinking for Designers — an accessible introduction that goes beyond user-centred design and ‘design thinking’ to look at problems in terms of dynamic systems.

• Nike: Circular Design — created in collaboration with Central Saint Martins, with a strong focus on product longevity, material innovation, and reducing waste.

• BCG: Sustainable Business Model Innovation — key elements of transitioning to a business model that drives sustainability and sustainable competitive advantage.

• Dark Matter Labs: Life Ennobling Economics — discussions on an economic model that is aligned with our ‘living’ planet as an interconnected system in need of regeneration.

• The Citizen Project: The Future of Membership — helping organisations to increase engagement and revenue through purpose-led participation in what they do.

MAJOR TECH:

• The Future Today Institute — technology trends report that is published every year with detail on key industries, smart and immersive technologies, and climate change.

• IBM: Design for Sustainability — integrating sustainability principles into design processes, providing resources and guidance for responsible digital products.

• Mozilla Developer: Intro to Web Sustainability — an introduction to web sustainability for developers, encouraging the adoption of eco-friendly practices in web development.

• Google: Cloud Framework for Sustainability — emphasising sustainability in cloud computing, providing guidance to reduce the carbon footprint in the cloud.

• Microsoft: Accelerating Sustainability with AI — a guide to embedding sustainability into Enterprises through improved workforce capacity, processes, data, and governance.

• McKinsey: Sustainable Software and Data Architectures — the potential to reduce carbon emissions by reassessing software engineering and approaches to sustainability.

• Royal Society: Computing for Net Zero — computing practices that contribute to achieving net-zero carbon emissions, addressing the environmental impact of technology.

DIGITAL DESIGN:

• Sustainable Web Manifesto — the key principles for designing a more eco-friendly internet. It serves as a guide for designers and developers committed to sustainability.

• The Green Web Foundation — dedicated to promoting a more sustainable internet. Tools and resources to design more sustainable websites, with a directory for web hosting.

• Sustainable Web Design — promotes sustainable user experience and design practices, connecting professionals passionate about sustainable digital design.

• The Sustainable UX Network (SUX) — a global initiative to build a community that integrates sustainability into User Experience Design. Over 3,000 designers guided by UN’s SDGs.

• Lowwwcarbon Examples — showcase of low-carbon, sustainably built websites that prove you can have a well-designed and sustainable presence on the internet.

• Greening Digital — a platform dedicated to providing resources, tools, and insights for reducing the environmental impact of digital technologies and services.

• Principles for the Design and Delivery of Greener Services — a draft set of guidelines from the UK Government as part of their Design in Government initiative and DEFRA.

DIGITAL PLAYBOOKS:

• Climate Product Management — a comprehensive guide for product managers to create climate-friendly digital products, and address the demand for sustainable innovation.

• Web Sustainability Guidelines 1.0 — a comprehensive set of recommendations for building environmentally friendly websites with lower energy consumption and carbon emissions.

• Spectrum IEEE: Decarbonize Software — a great article that discusses green software design and presents a number of tools to estimate and improve carbon impact of code.

• The Green Code Initiative — Plugins called EcoCode that run with SonarQube to provide analysis of code, with recommendations for more sustainable application development.

• Google: Sustainability Marketing Playbook — partnered with Project Drawdown to build a culture of sustainability and help reduce carbon across marketing operations.

• Digital Climate Impact Calculator — estimate the carbon footprint of a website and offers recommendations for website owners and developers to reduce environmental impact.

• Toolkits for UX Designers — a LinkedIn list of valuable resource offering practical guidance and tools specifically tailored for UX designers implementing sustainable design.

FASHION AND APPAREL:

• Greenpeace: Fashion Greenwash — report on the extent to which the fashion industry is using subterfuge to hide its negative impact on communities and the planet.

• Business of Fashion: Sustainability — news on sustainability across the fashion industry, including the periodic sustainability index and state of fashion reports.

• CB Insights: The Future of Fashion — how technology is revolutionising the fashion industry, highlighting trends that enhance personalisation, automation, and sustainability.

• Common Objective: Circular Fashion — creating sustainable fashion systems where clothes are designed to be reused, recycled, and kept in use as long as possible.

• Ellen MacArthur Foundation: Deep Dive into Fashion — how a circular fashion economy can boost clothing use, use renewable materials, and recycle to improve sustainability.

• UN: The Sustainable Fashion Communications Playbook — promoting sustainability, countering misinformation, reducing overconsumption, and empowering consumers.

• Sustainable Material Directory — sourcing materials to support sustainable production, listing available suppliers, marketplaces, and manufacturers.

TRAINING AND EVENTS:

• Product for Net Zero — training and educational materials for individuals and teams, looking to develop products and services with a net-zero carbon impact.

• The Carbon Literacy Project — a charity that provides days and longer programmes of carbon training, with certification for individuals and organisations.

• Sustainability Events — a well-designed and accessible events calendar for events linked to sustainability issues. Most are in the UK, though some are wider Europe and the world.

• Terra.do — aiming to be the world’s largest platform for climate work, with a job board and a comprehensive list of available climate-related courses around the world.

CAMPAIGNING AND ACTIVISM:

• Tech Zero — a community platform dedicated to fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing to achieving zero carbon emissions in the tech industry.

• Climate Action Tech — a group of previously unaffiliated tech workers who volunteer their time to improve the capabilities and approaches that companies take to be more sustainable.

• Fashion Revolution — global fashion activism movement founded after the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster, advocating for sustainable and ethical practices in the fashion industry.