O'Reilly Media is now selling an e-book-only advanced release of the unedited Designing for Sustainability: A Guide to Building Greener Digital Products and Services. Though the full version (and hard copy) won't be released until July 2016, interested folks can purchase an advanced e-book and give feedback on the content as it is being written. Reader feedback will be incorporated into subsequent revisions.
With the internet using an ever-increasing amount of our electricity—only a small amount of which comes from renewable sources—and its users numbering three and a quarter billion, its environmental impact is significant, more than that of the airline industry. Large tech companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook have led the charge toward powering the internet with renewable energy, but that is only part of a much larger picture. As we work toward a more sustainable future, efficiency and usability will sit alongside renewables as key strategies for building a cleaner, greener internet. This book will help design teams incorporate sustainability principles into their workflows to quickly create more efficient digital products and services that are better for users and better for the planet.
The book has eight chapters:
- Sustainability and the Internet
- Designing for Sustainability: A Primer
- Green Hosting and Other Sustainable Components
- Content Strategy
- Design and UX
- Performance Optimization
- Calculating Carbon Footprints
- The Internet of the Future
It also features interviews with industry and nonprofit leaders—including nearly a dozen certified B Corps—who are working to power the digital economy with renewable energy and create more sustainable digital products and services. In my experience, the B Corp community, including great companies like Manoverboard, Closed Loop Advisors, Open Concept Consulting, Dojo4, Exygy, and others are leading the charge toward a more sustainable internet. Also featured are interviews with Greenpeace's Click Clean team, Pete Markiewicz, James Christie, and others.
O'Reilly will release the first two chapters in January 2016 with two chapters to follow each month thereafter. Those who purchase the advanced release will automatically receive the final product once it is complete. I have committed to researching and writing the best possible content on the topic of internet sustainability so this process helps ensure a higher caliber title. O'Reilly is the first publisher with which I've worked that crowdsources portions of the editorial process in the name of improving title quality. It is a unique approach that other publishers could likely learn a lot from.
Finally, the regal fellow gracing the cover is a Jeweled Lacerta Lizard, a protected native of the Iberian Peninsula. O'Reilly Media has been placing animals on its title covers since the 1980s to raise awareness of the plights of wild species.
Get an advanced copy of the book on O'Reilly's site.