App Design

Designing digital products for a sustainable world

Get introduced to the reality of the environmental impact of digital products.

Giselle Katics

Jan 24, 2025 • 6 min read

The evolution of product design echoes the human transformation. In the early 1950s, the human-centered design approach revolutionized product development, placing human needs at the core of product creation. For the following decades, that principle guided the development of physical products, redefining what design meant.

The digital revolution arrived with the launch of the iPhone in 2007, and product design became synonymous with digital products, shaping websites and apps with the same user-centric philosophy. The digital transformation had an inherited mindset: a continuous emphasis on productivity and consumption.

Digital Design for a Sustainable World

In 2023, the climate crisis became undeniable, as the warmest year on record. According to NCEI's Global Annual Temperature Rankings Outlook, 2024 is in the top 5 warmest years, since tracking began. The fundamental question of product design has shifted from "How can we create products people want?" to "How can we create products that sustain human and planetary needs?".

As digital services are interconnected with human needs, understanding their environmental impact has become relevant as there is a better understanding of how those products impact the environment. To continue creating products –and continue existing– it becomes essential to prioritize environmental needs alongside human needs.

Environmental-Centered Design

Environmental-centered design is a holistic methodology that combines human-centered design principles with sustainability and scientific understanding as core principles. This methodology goes beyond asking "What do users need?" instead broadens the scope to "What does our planet need?”.

This methodology aims to develop products and services that are environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. It addresses the target human's needs, motivations, and pains while prioritizing the non-human elements affected by the solution. Environmental-centered design envisions a future where innovation and sustainability coexist harmoniously.

Apple's introduction of the "carbon neutral" product line –focusing on reusable materials and improving the impact across the supply chain– highlights the company's commitment to sustainability and recognizes that consumers make decisions based on environmental cost. The iPhone 16, for example, is made with over 25% recycled content and optimized energy consumption, which results in longer battery life and less frequent charging.

iOS 18 has advanced storage management features that help users efficiently manage their device's storage. By identifying and removing unnecessary data and apps, users can free up space, extending the device's lifespan.

Netflix, too, is dedicated to sustainability, setting a goal to reduce its internal emissions by 45% below 2019 levels by 2030. The company is investing in external projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere, such as protecting forests above and below water.

Spotify has pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030. The company is working on reducing emissions from its operations and supply chain, including data centers and content delivery networks. As part of its sustainability actions, it launched Sounds Right –in partnership with the Museum of the United Nations/UN Live, EarthPercent – a tool that allows nature to generate royalties from its music to support its conservation.

Collective Action for Change

Change happens when we demand it collectively. Making digital green(er) is creating efficient products. Measuring an application's impact involves multiple layers and should begin in the conceptual phase of an idea. In the environmental layer, one of the priorities is to understand how to optimize the digital application's footprint. On the social layer, it's important to draw a realistic overview of how an application influences user behavior and promotes responsible actions.

Numbers on the environmental impact of digital services are often fragmented and inconsistent. Users, typically, are unaware of the energy consumption tied to the services they use. A study by Bristol University showed that thoughtful features can significantly reduce carbon footprints. YouTube, for example, has 25% of music videos being played in the background –where the video runs in a non-active browser tab, with users only listening to the audio. If YouTube allowed audio-only streaming in such cases, it could prevent the emission of 323,000 tons of CO₂ annually.

To highlight the CO2 emissions of various digital and analogue services, this data visualization compiles numbers from multiple reliable sources for clear comparison. References and sources at the end of the article.

The following are a few examples of the environmental impact the production of technology and consumption of digital services have:

Streaming music can be more sustainable than buying physical CDs, but only if an album is played less than 27 times in a lifetime.
A simple email with no attachments generates approximately 4g of CO₂ while an SMS message produces just 0.014g of CO₂.
Online game streaming can be more carbon-intensive than traditional game distribution methods, with U.S. gamers consuming 32 terawatt hours of energy annually. In comparison, an average refrigerator uses approximately 657 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year.

Plant a tree

Tree-planting apps have gained popularity on the App Store as tools for environmental conservation. Their actual impact depends on implementation and effective management. Platforms like Treeapp have facilitated the planting of over one million trees, which, upon maturity, can sequester approximately 26,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

For long-term success requires, robust monitoring systems are essential. TREEO app, for example, provides tools for accurate carbon removal tracking and single-tree monitoring to deliver lasting environmental benefits.

Experts warn that poorly planned tree-planting initiatives can have unintended negative consequences, including tree mortality, decreased biodiversity, and damaged ecosystems. While tree-planting apps have great potential, their effectiveness depends on thoughtful planning, active community participation, and consistent oversight to achieve meaningful and lasting environmental benefits.

Small Choices, Big Impact

The future of digital products isn’t just about what can be developed—it’s about the intentional choices we make in creating responsibly. While individual efforts may seem small, they have the potential to drive transformative change.

Digital products, with every line of code and every design decision, have an opportunity to make a meaningful impact. By embedding environmental consciousness into digital design principles, we can build products that contribute to a more sustainable technological ecosystem.

The future of digital products isn't just about what can be developed –it's about the intentional choices we make in what we create responsibly.

The future of digital products isn't just about what can be developed –it's about creating responsible and intentionally making choices to deliver a responsible product. While one person alone may not transform an entire system, individual actions can drive positive change.

Developing eco-friendly apps exemplifies developers' social responsibility —understanding how the application affects users and how the product can empower them to take responsible actions. The future of digital products lies not in ruthless innovation but in thoughtful and responsible creation, which is about the intentional choices we make in what we responsibly ship to the store.

Going deeper

To have an understanding of the environmental impact of digital services you can approach it from different angles. The following tools, for example, focus on estimating the carbon emissions generated by websites and other computing resources.

The Website Carbon Calculator allows you to input the URL of a website using a methodology developed and improved by them over the years.

CodeCarbon has a different approach. It is a lightweight software package designed to estimate the CO₂ emissions generated by the cloud or personal computing resources used during code execution. It provides developers with actionable insights to reduce these emissions, such as optimizing their code or hosting their cloud infrastructure in regions that rely on renewable energy sources.

CodeCarbon.io

CodeCarbon is a lightweight software package that seamlessly integrates into your Python codebase. It estimates the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by the cloud or personal computing resources used to execute the code.

The sources of the numbers used to create the data visualization of the CO2 emissions of various digital and analog services were based on the following articles: