5.2 Assign a Sustainability Representative

Having someone within an organization who represents sustainability as a core agenda makes good sense due to the accessibility, performance, financial, and other benefits that can occur from following best practices.

Criteria

Ecological Referee: An ecological referee (with specific digital expertise) for the product or service within your organization has been assigned.

Impact

Medium

Effort

Low

Benefits

Environmental:
A referee will maintain quality assurance and guide decisions that measurably reduce the environmental impact of the organization’s digital products and services.
Privacy:
They will maintain intersectional data privacy standards and potentially watch out for legal compliance issues within the organization.
Social Equity:
A representative will help to reduce the digital divide and improve access to information for visitors with older devices, in low-bandwidth areas, and so on. This reduces emissions as less e-waste will be produced if the need for newer equipment becomes less of a priority.
Accessibility:
The sustainability representative will help the organization improve issues surrounding barriers to access. These inherently could cost bandwidth, have a monetary value, and have potential legal implications.
Economic:
A dedicated resource who maintains quality control will ultimately improve the organization’s financial standing.

GRI

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

Example

Microsoft’s sustainability team and journey.

Resources

View the Guideline