Ecodesign
Ecodesign of digital services consists of integrating environmental impact into design choices, from initial specification through to decommissioning.
Why design decides
Most of a service's impact is fixed at design time. Once a service assumes a recent device, a fast connection and constant data exchange, no later optimisation recovers what those assumptions cost.
The most consequential decision is rarely technical. It is the decision about scope: which features exist at all.
Main levers, in order of effect
- Reduce the functional scope to what is actually used. Measured usage almost always shows a long tail of features used by nobody.
- Preserve compatibility with older devices. A service that still works on a six-year-old phone delays its replacement, which is the largest environmental gain available to a software team.
- Limit data transferred and stored: image formats and sizes, autoplay, prefetching, retention periods.
- Avoid constant network activity, which drains batteries and keeps infrastructure busy.
- Measure before and after, rather than assuming.
Common misconception
Ecodesign is frequently reduced to page weight. Weight matters, but the dominant effect of a heavy service is that it accelerates device replacement, not that it consumes bandwidth. The target is the device, not the network.
Frameworks
The RGESN provides 78 criteria structured for assessment. The GR491 provides a broader set of recommendations, including social and ethical aspects. Both can be used together.
Relationship with accessibility
An ecodesigned service and an accessible service share most of their properties: structured content, no dependence on the latest browser, usable on modest hardware and poor connections. The two disciplines reinforce each other more often than they compete.
