2.3 Research Non-Visitor's Needs

2.3 Research Non-Visitor’s Needs

If you provide physical goods or services, you may also have to account for the sustainability impact of delivery services. This can often be tricky, but courier companies may provide useful tooling to help you identify emissions data for routing.

Criteria

Non-Human Impact: A plan of action has been established for non-users and other stakeholders who might be passively impacted by a digital product or service, such as neighbors accepting parcels, traffic jams due to deliveries, etc. Research their needs and understand how they might be affected.

Impact

Medium

Effort

Medium

Benefits

Environmental:
To the extent that they can be planned for up-front through verifiable research practices, interventions such as planning with suppliers can potentially significantly reduce the environmental impact of a digital product or service.
Social Equity:
By including other potentially marginalized groups as part of the research process, product teams can potentially head off unintended consequences or requirements these groups may have before they occur.
Accessibility:
By including people who might not be primary or secondary users, such as people with disabilities who may be specifically impacted by the need for such services; as key stakeholders in research, this community’s specific needs can be better addressed.
Economic:
Up-front research on a product or service’s entire ecosystem, including the wider aspects like indirect services will help organizations more effectively manage project budgets.

GRI

materials: Medium
energy: Medium
water: Medium
emissions: Medium

Example

Physical goods carbon footprint and emissions calculator.

Resources

View the Guideline