5.14 Establish if a Digital Product or Service Is Necessary

Ensure that the product or service you are creating offers value to visitors and doesn’t duplicate existing functionality (without bringing something new to the table) as this redundancy wastes digital and physical resources.

Criteria

Sustainable Development Goals: The product or service identifies within a sustainability statement where it aligns with one of the U.N. (SDGs) and its appropriate targets.
Creation Evaluation: The product or service has been determined as necessary based upon desirability, feasibility, and viability factors.
Avoid Duplication: No existing digital product or service offers the same value. An analysis has been conducted if necessary to understand the market for this requirement.
Obstacle Consideration: Any obstacles to using a product or service, such as accessibility, equality, technical, or territorial have been overcome.

Impact

High

Effort

Low

Benefits

Environmental:
By determining that a digital product or service is not necessary, you avoid potential environmental impacts associated with its creation and use.
Operations:
Organizations don’t waste time or resources creating unnecessary tools that then require ongoing maintenance.
Social Equity:
Organizations avoid increasing the digital divide by creating only digital products and services that are meaningful and necessary.
Accessibility:
As long as an accessible replacement is available, avoiding an unnecessary digital product or service can improve access to existing information.
Economic:
Organizations cut costs by not investing in unnecessary products or services.

GRI

materials: High
energy: High
water: High
emissions: High

Example

Competitor analysis template to determine the viability of a project.

Resources

View the Guideline