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Turning awareness into action with Climate UX
Thursday, January 16, 2025 • Climate UX Interest Group (Rosenfeld Community)
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Turning awareness into action with Climate UX
Speakers: Tristin Oldani
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Summary

Watch this conversation with Tristin Oldani, UX strategist at Intel who is challenging how we think about digital sustainability. What happens when we truly understand the environmental impact of our digital products? In this candid conversation, Tristin shares her journey of turning climate awareness into actionable design solutions. From early experiments to implemented features, discover how UX design can drive meaningful environmental change in tech organisations. This is a story about curiosity, persistence, and finding practical ways to make our digital world more sustainable. Whether you're new to Climate UX or already working in this space, you'll find fresh insights and practical inspiration for your own journey.

Key Insights

  • Tristan discovered green software unexpectedly via a job listing at Intel in 2022 during a peak hiring period.

  • Sustainability groups in large companies often form and disband, cycling between official and grassroots efforts.

  • Executive allies can be both vocal champions or quiet supporters who influence green initiatives internally.

  • Workshops that connect software and hardware teams using application carbon intensity data foster cross-functional awareness and momentum.

  • 'Green Concepts' is a UX approach that embeds sustainability features like green dev mode into daily developer tools to encourage greener workflows.

  • Communicating the environmental impact through practical interfaces helps developers balance productivity with sustainability.

  • Small wins and incremental changes in existing tools can be more effective than trying to implement large sustainability features at once.

  • The term 'efficient' is often used instead of 'sustainable' or 'green' to engage users without resistance.

  • AI and data center energy consumption is becoming a critical and growing area of concern within green UX and software.

  • Financial incentives, like combining FinOps (financial operations) with GreenOps, are powerful levers to promote sustainability in corporate settings.

Notable Quotes

"I didn’t know green software existed before this job listing caught my eye."

"There are obvious allies, and there are quiet allies passionate but not fully living it yet."

"Workshops helped hardware and software teams see energy impact through app intensity and timing on the grid."

"Green dev mode would give developers control to switch on greener options when they have flexibility."

"People aren’t thinking about grid intensity during their regular workflows, but we can design to bring awareness."

"Users won’t change habits easily, so we have to design without getting in their way but offer options."

"We don’t call it green or sustainable, we call it efficient—people respond better to that language."

"AI’s growing energy demands make green software more important, not less."

"Money talks—tying cost savings with energy reductions helps get sustainability prioritized."

"One day without TikTok in the US could save over 26,000 metric tons of CO2—that’s huge impact."

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