Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Tech and AI: Tactics for Product and Technology Innovators

Artificial Intelligence is being embedded in nearly every facet of technology, bringing both excitement and concern. Training and running AI models can consume vast amounts of energy—some estimates suggest that training a single large language model can emit as much carbon as multiple passenger cars over their entire lifetimes, and AI queries can consume 4-5 times more energy than traditional search engine queries. This energy demand stems from powering data centres, cooling systems, and intensive computational processes, making AI a notable contributor to carbon emissions.

Because of AI’s growing environmental footprint, especially driven by developments in generative AI technology, it is crucial to think strategically about where and how we apply it.

Reduce Footprint is the twenty-third Design Strategy in a series where I share essential tips for creating tech products people love, based on the book Design Things That Make Sense (with a free downloadable toolkit). For this series, each Design Strategy has been carefully adjusted to make them fit for designing AI-powered innovations. Most tactics described in this Design Strategy, however, Reduce Footprint (B23), apply?to physical products.

Read all articles about Design Strategies here.

Include Eco-Friendly Choices

Many of us appreciate convenience and speed, but these can come at an ecological price. Large language models, for instance, often prioritise high performance and accuracy but consume significant amounts of energy. By contrast, smaller language models can be tailored to specific tasks, offering a more energy-efficient solution. For example, while large models might power comprehensive AI assistants, small models could handle localised tasks like auto-completion or grammar correction, consuming far less energy. Encouraging the use of smaller models for targeted applications can significantly reduce environmental impact, aligning performance with sustainability goals.

Offer Your Product as a Service

Offering your product as a service will help you maintain control over its environmental footprint. Swapfiets, for instance, offers subscription-based bicycles that customers can use for a monthly fee. This model ensures that the company retains ownership of the bikes, allowing them to take responsibility for repairs, maintenance, and eventual recycling. Swapfiets’ approach reduces waste by extending the lifespan of their bikes and ensures efficient resource usage through a circular economy model. This service-based system encourages sustainable consumption while meeting customer needs.

Sell Good-as-New Used Products

While the purchase of second hand cars, furniture, or clothing is typical, most people prefer buying brand-new tech products. Luckily, price and sustainability concerns have caused a growing number of consumers to show interest in high-quality secondhand electronics. Samsung offers "Certified pre-owned phones" that have been taken apart, inspected, and partially replaced if necessary. After reassembly, the phones get a software update and undergo 400 rigorous tests to ensure their condition. The phones are then shipped with a new charger, a fresh set of headphones, and a one-year warranty. Third-party refurbishment companies and independent marketplaces like Back Market help companies who don't want to create their own refurbishment programs.

Engage in Recycling

We see countless examples of tech products that are impossible to recycle due to design choices: batteries glued to the product casing, materials mixed with toxic chemicals, and so on. Making your products easy to recycle requires special attention in the design process. Running your own recycling program will make it easy for consumers to recycle their products and increase recycling rates. Apple’s trade-in program accepts smartphones, tablets, computers, watches, drives, mice, keyboards, printers, iPods, and more. In some cases, Apple will exchange Apple Store credit for the device. Apple isn’t the only one encouraging electronics recycling; companies like LG, Samsung, Sony, and Xerox all offer mail-in or drop-off stations for their products. Be aware that recycling should be a last resort; design strategies like Lengthen Lifespan (B22) and tactics like “Selling Good-as-New Used Products” are far better for the environment.

Create Environmentally-Friendly Side Effects

While reducing your product's environmental footprint is great, adding a positive effect from use is even better. Hydrogen cars claim a lower environmental footprint than combustion engine cars. But there’s more: Hyundai claims that driving their NEXO hydrogen car actually cleans the air instead of polluting it like conventional cars do. The car filters harmful particles out of the air and only exhausts water vapour.

Offer Transparency

Being transparent about your product's footprint can help environment-conscious consumers make better purchasing decisions. Carbon footprint labelling is an excellent way to offer transparency. As fast-moving consumer goods pave the way, tech products closely follow. Most footprint labels will depict “cradle-to-grave“ carbon footprints, measuring the product’s total greenhouse gas emissions, from the extraction of raw materials to the product’s manufacture, distribution, use, and eventual disposal.

With awareness around energy use of generative AI quickly growing, it won't be long before new entrants, especially the ones focusing on smaller, more specialised models, start offering transparency on their AI's carbon footprint. Let's hope that this will set a new trend and make developers of generative AI services more transparent so end users can make considerate choices.

Go Carbon-Negative

Consumers are expanding their concern for environmental impact beyond the product; companies’ overall carbon profiles are becoming more important to consumers. After all, buying from carbon-neutral companies is an easy way for consumers to lower their own footprint. We see more and more companies taking responsibility and offsetting their emissions.

Search engine Ecosia is a carbon-negative search engine, producing its own solar electricity and using its profits to plant trees. They claim that every search request removes 0.5 kg of CO2 from the atmosphere.

Many big tech companies have begun announcing serious commitments. Microsoft, for example, promises to be carbon negative by 2030, and by 2050, to remove all the carbon it has emitted either directly or through electrical consumption since its founding in 1975. However, recent reports indicate that Microsoft is facing significant challenges in achieving this ambitious goal as their bet on generative AI increases emissions. Moving ahead, balancing performance and sustainability is a must for tech providers.

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AI and other digital innovations aren’t inherently planet-friendly; they can and do leave a sizeable environmental footprint. By employing these seven tactics, we can begin to align the development of technology with the urgent need for environmental sustainability.

This article is the twenty-third publication in a series of articles sharing practical, actionable tips on how to design tech products that people don't just use, but love. We'll dive into applying AI in ways that truly matter by making technology work for people, not the other way around.

You can find all publications here.

The articles build on the world’s leading design methods for designing successful tech products, as described in the book “Design Things that Make Sense”. Visit www.designthingsthatmakesense.com to learn more or download the free toolkit.

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