From agreenfocus:
Hello! My name is Paul Lloyd, and I’m a visual designer at Clearleft and founder of a.green:focus. With the help of my friends and peers, I’m hoping to build a coalition of web developers who, by working together and sharing our knowledge and ideas, can help reduce our industry’s impact on the environment.
Ours is an industry occupied by some of the most talented, creative and empathetic people on the planet. We craft interfaces that are easy to use, design experiences that push the boundaries of a medium and build websites that are accessible to all. We’ve developed social networks that allow us to communicate with each other in ways never thought possible. We are in the business of creating the future.
Yet we are equally to blame for putting this future at risk.
I announced my idea for this campaign at the second ‘Multipack Presents…’ event in Birmingham last April. Given the situation we face with regards to our warming planet and endangered rainforests, I was appalled to see the continuing trend in which web conferences ply their attendees with bags full of useless—and often swiftly discarded—‘schwag’. SXSW, I’m looking in your direction. Furthermore, I felt that travelling great distances to conferences was not only seen as glamorous, but necessary. Yet the reality is that we have a wealth of great conferences and local community events right on our doorsteps.
We also habitually upgrade our computers, phones and other gizmos to the latest bits of kit—often when we have little need to—and regardless of the amount of energy and raw material required to create or power them.
I’m not exempting myself either. In fact, I’m possibly one of the worst offenders. I’m better than this. We are all better than this, and with our shared talent and skills, uniquely placed to change the world for the better.
The Multipack Presents… Hack The Planet
Almost a year has passed since I announced this idea to a small yet responsive audience, yet the problems haven’t gone away. So now I’m actually doing something about it, and I hope you will join me in doing so too.
It all starts with a hack day on Saturday 20th February, kindly hosted by One Black Bear at their swish offices in Birmingham, and supported by the lovely folks at Campaign Monitor.
During the day (and Sunday if necessary), we hope to create a web site, application or viral campaign that will encourage people like us to reduce our impact on the environment; be it in the office, at home, or on the road.
With SXSW taking place just a few weeks later, perhaps we could create a campaign to encourage attendees not pick up the infamous ‘Big Bag’ (and furthermore ask for them not to be provided at future events). Maybe we should think longer term. Maybe we should build a website that allows users to create a carbon pledge (and then help them stick to it)? Or possibly develop an application that combines the recently released public sector information available at data.gov.uk with AMEE and popular social network APIs. The possibilities are endless.
As a community of designers, information architects, developers and user experience practitioners, I would like to see all specialisms represented. Even if you don’t know your HTML from your Haml but care about the environment, I would encourage you to join in and help out.
Hopefully this post has given you a little introduction to our project. Keep reading for news about the hack day, as well as any future events, campaigns and projects we may run. Follow us on Twitter for tips on becoming a greener web developer. And please join us on Saturday 20th February.
Paul
Reblogged from a.green:focus.
February 05, 2010, 8:14am
