We spoke to Drew Minns – founder of Really Good Work helping some of the biggest brands reduce their digital carbon footprints and adopt greener practices online.
What inspired you to focus on sustainable web and app development, and how did this passion lead to the founding of Really Good Work?
Really Good Work began as my development practice, always prioritizing a human-centered design approach over strictly business goals. My view is that without users to use them, digital products are useless. Making experiences that enable user success will, in turn, allow businesses to grow.
Through this journey, I began to look into ways to make products faster and smaller in size to get them to users faster and remove any barriers. In the end, the practical benefits of sustainable thinking are a result of good design!
In your opinion, what are the most significant environmental impacts of the internet and digital technologies, and how can sustainable web practices mitigate these effects?
Social media and streaming have significant impacts on the environment due to the amount of data needed to be sent through networking infrastructure.
For example, a video is stored on a server in a data center, which requires large amounts of energy to operate and cool. Every time a video is streamed, it travels through multiple networks, consuming energy at each step, from data centers to internet service providers and personal devices.
Optimizing images and videos, reducing the use of unnecessary scripts, and designing energy-efficient websites, can reduce the energy demands of this infrastructure. By minimizing data usage and improving performance, we can reduce the carbon footprint associated with internet usage.
Can you explain what carbon-neutral web practices entail and how companies can begin to integrate these practices into their online operations?
Designing with the user in mind is very important. Many of the issues we have with sustainability are related to shortcuts that don’t prioritize inclusivity and user needs. One of the most surprising things about digital sustainability is that accessibility and sustainability go hand in hand, so understanding your users in the design process will not only help you improve your user experience but will save the earth.
Remember, inclusivity doesn’t mean people with permanent disabilities. It can mean people with slow internet connections, broken arms, and older devices. Designing for everyone means we can build with sustainable solutions in mind.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve encountered in promoting digital sustainability to clients, and how do you overcome them?
The challenge is reprogramming how others think about how the internet works. It’s been sold to us as this magical thing, however the internet infrastructure is massive and requires significant amounts of energy.
If you remember when we used to carry around hard drives, CDs, and USB keys, when we shifted to using the cloud, the storage shifted from our pockets to massive data centers that require energy to power. Delivering information and media to a user’s device requires power at every step of the journey. The larger the file size of the content or media, the more energy is required.
How do you balance the need for high-performance websites with the goal of reducing their environmental impact, particularly when working with large companies like Shopify and Four Seasons?
The incredible part is that websites become faster and more accessible when designed with digital sustainability in mind. In fact, sustainable websites have higher SEO results, performance, and overall costs. When planning and speaking to stakeholders, referencing these benefits helps convince others. Also, the overall costs of adopting digital sustainability are typically lower and lead to lowered operational costs.
Digital sustainability is gaining traction, but there’s still a long way to go. Where do you see the movement heading in the next 5-10 years, and what role do you hope Really Good Work will play?
I always tell everyone that my goal is to make my role irrelevant. Digital sustainability benefits us all and my goal is to educate the industry and fundamentally change how we all approach our work. Digital Sustainability doesn’t require new ideas or a new way of working. It requires teams to use the tools correctly and not take shortcuts, which can often have graver consequences with accessibility and sustainability.
As technology continues to evolve, what emerging trends or innovations in web development excite you the most in terms of their potential to reduce environmental impact?
No-code development is thrilling! Human beings are the ones who create waste, so removing them completely will help the environment. It sounds scary, but if we can remove the complexity of mundane tasks and allow more ideas into the product, we can create more progressive ideas.
At Really Good Work, I’m currently working on a tool that will allow designers to create fully sustainable websites without the need for developers, something that has yet to be explored with other no-code tools.
For developers and designers looking to make their work more sustainable, what key practices or tools would you recommend they start with?
Be mindful about the size of images and videos you’re adding to your site or app.
The largest consumers of energy online are images that have not been resized correctly, or videos that are in the highest quality for a TV, but will be viewed on a phone. Resizing correctly will shrink the size of the media and require less energy to be sent to your user’s device, but will also reduce load times.
What advice would you give to companies that are beginning their journey toward more sustainable digital practices, particularly those unsure where to start?
My advice is to prioritize users. Our work has no reason to exist if not for them, so prioritizing their needs first will always lead to success. By creating sustainable experiences, we’re sending a message to our users and customers that we care about them.
About Drew Minns
Drew Minns is the founder of Really Good Work, a Canadian studio specializing in sustainable web and app development, strategy, and design.
With over 20 years of experience as both a developer and designer, Drew empowers organizations like Shopify, Four Seasons, and Mejuri to reduce their digital carbon footprints and adopt greener practices online.
Recognizing that the web development industry often overlooks tools and workflows for inclusivity and performance, Drew is on a mission to educate others on how the internet contributes to climate change. He advocates for environmentally conscious practices, aiming to foster a digital landscape that is both accessible and carbon-neutral.
