Welcome to this month’ edition of the SUX Newsletter. It will be a special edition reflecting on the past year as well as looking forward to the things coming in 2025. It has been a ride in 2024 and it will also be one in 2025 - but the list of wonderful plans and ideas is full and we are looking forward to this year together with you - the community. So, what can you expect from this month Newsletter:

• My thoughts about 2024 and about the things to come in 2025 🙌
• Two new resources in the SUX Resource Database 📚
• SUX Podcast-Recap and the upcoming episode 🎙
• The first SUX online get together end of January & the SUX Local Chapter Hamburg starting in February 🌿
• Recap of the SUX Academy, the upcoming Masterclasses “Become Sustainable UX Designer” in January and February 2025 and the plans for more courses 🎓
• We are super thankful that we got a supporting partner for this edition: mittwald Hosting. Read more why this is a wonderful sponsor for us and why you might want to consider them for your hosting 💚
• And as always we round up with a little “Did you know” - this time about TikTok💡

🌿 Thought of the Month: What a year

2024 - what a year it has been..

2024 was an intense year- with many good things, but as well bad things happening. And I need to start with the bad things: The election in the US did not went as we all wished for. In Germany the current coalition broke and there will be an early new election next month with a Nazi-Party being at 20% in the polls at the moment and in many other countries extreme (mostly right wing) parties are on the rise. And this has a lot to do with our work on many levels. Because many of these parties are denying or at least downplaying the climate catastrophy - in a time where we see more and more direct consequences of the climate catastrophy in terms of for example natural disasters (as we see right now in Los Angeles), we still need to fight for the acceptance of the facts. 2024 was the first year where the global average temperature rise was above 1,6 degree celsius compared to the average before the industrialization.

And while this is happening we celebrate all the new Gen AI models and features, that exponentially rise the tech-demand for energy and thereby the carbon emissions (and fresh water consumption).

Our digital world plays a significant role in the the greenhouse gas emissions and many people were and are doing great work towards a more climate friendly digital world. But, there is much more work to do to make tech climate friendly and to use it in a more climate friendly way.

And it is not only the ecological part of sustainability. Digital products create social injustice - being it in a global context (for example because of the resources necessary for the chips in our servers that need to be mined under inhuman conditions or the data workers that need to overlook the LLMs we use, so we do no see any horrible outputs) or in a local context where the convenience for the user is most often paid by someone else somewhere else in the ecosystem of the service or product.

I personally see that we are making progress in making these injustices more transparent, but still it is not standard in our processes.

But there have been a lot of positive things happening. The SUX community grew, we did more than a handful of local and in-person events, some of them in cooperation with other wonderful people. The SUX Slack Space grew to almost 2500 people and the SUX Academy was born and meanwhile more than 200 people have done one of our Masterclasses.

And just some weeks ago at the W3C an official interest group for web sustainability has been established and I was invited to join as an expert (so, in case you do not know how the W3C works: this is a huge step towards making the Web Sustainability Guidelines an official standard). Regulations in the EU catch up and the emissions of digital infrastructure become relevant for sustainability reporting.

I can sense the momentum shift towards digital sustainability. It needs to be faster, but it is there. And that is still a good basis to move on from.

2025 - what a year it will be...

And we need to go much further. 2025 needs to be the year where we make sustainability step by step default in our design processes, followed by the whole product creation processes. We all should ask ourselves what are the three things I can change in my design process in the next 6 month and what are the 3 things I want to have changed by the end of the year. Being it on my personal level, but also on team, project or organizational level.

And that includes to question the use of (Gen)AI. I am not saying we should not use it at all. But we should use it more informed and depending on the right use cases. Gen AI causes a lot of negative impact: ecologically but also societal. And no, AI is not the answer to everything and AI will not make you a better designer. AI is useful for a bunch of use cases. But for others the real price (paid by others) for using it is too high. Is it worth making my life easier today if it destroys the tomorrow not only for me but also our children? If I could wish for something, I would wish for much much more informed discussions of the negative impacts and real price of (Gen) AI.

And we need to leave our home turf. It won't be enough to design sustainable digital products, we need to think about how we can use our craft to create impact and influence in the world. As I said in the last newsletter, we are dominated by false narratives. Fascists are elected because they are "better" in telling easy Narratives. Truth vanishes and becomes irrelevant - at least for the moment. We need to work on better narratives. Narratives that explain the complex world better and that counter all the false Narratives of the fascists, nazis and deniers.

But it's also about demystifying the big tech narratives that are in the end mainly are about making them stronger. We are relying heavily on big tech and part of our journey needs to be to get more independent from it.

So, 2025 will be tough year. For sure. But there is a lot of hope as well. We are many and that gives us a lot of power. Design is an essential part of most processes and we have a lot of impact. But at some points we need to take back this power. Btu I am confident that we will be able to achieve this as well.

One key aspect is to get together, to combine powers. We are many and we are strong. Therefore one goal of the SUX Network is to provide more opportunities to get together, to share thoughts and ideas or to learn and try tools, tactics and strategies. We plan to produce more episodes of the SUX podcast to get the voice of more inspiring people to the community. And we plan to provide more courses and Masterclasses - and offer as many low-income tickets as possible to make our classes available and affordable for as many people as possible. We also plan to offer different courses - on responsible AI but also Sustainable Design Leadership. We also plant to work together with other non-profit organizations for projects and events.

We at SUX have two main goals for 2025: Making sustainability default in digital design processes and using UX and design to create a sustainable digital world that helps to create more delightful lifes for every human (and every being) in this world and that exists in balance with the planet.

And we invite you to join us on this way. 🌿

📚 SUX Playbook and SUX Resource Database

In 2024 the SUX Resource Database grew and we also published the first tools of the SUX Playbook. More will follow in the next weeks and month and the playbook will be enriched with more detailed explanations and step-by-step guidelines.

But, we will also continue to add all kinds of resources and tools from other people to the database and today I have two new book recommendations for you:

📓 Book: User Experience Design und Sustainability by Tanja Brodbeck, Claudia Bruckschwaiger, Katharina Clasen, Thorsten Jonas, Clemens Lutsch, Olga Lange, Kathrin Rochow, Martin Tomitsch and Ingo Waclawczyk

Based on research done by the working group sustainability of the German UPA, the book shows the status quo in Sustainability in UX Design and how UX Designers see it. In addition it collects current tools and frameworks to implement sustainability in the design process. I had the honor to be part of this book and to work on three chapters. Furthermore two of the SUX tools are part of the book as well. Please note: so far the book is only available in german.

📓 Book: Better Things. Materials for sustainable product design by Daniel Liden

In his book Daniel Liden seeks to tackle the lazy 'greenwashing' terminology we see every day, providing a guide for product designers, manufacturers and consumers wishing to make better and more informed decisions about materials. This book is most interesting if you come from an industrial design direction or work in projects or on products that have a strong physical product component.

Find more than 140 (and growing) various resources, tools, frameworks, talks about sustainable UX and design but also digital sustainability in the SUX Resource database: https://suxnetwork.notion.site

You developed a tool, or found an interesting resource? We invite you to add it to the SUX database.

🎙 This year's episodes of the SUX Podcast:

In 2024 we had the honor to welcome 5 wonderful guests at the SUX Podcast. It is a wonderful privilege to be able to meet all these wonderful people and to discuss digital sustainable, responsible tech and sustainable UX and design. And good news: the next episode is already recorded and will be released next week.

EP12 - Damien Lutz Life centered Design

EP13 - Don Norman Changing the world through Design

EP14 - Tom Greenwood AI and digital Sustainability

EP15 - Hannah Smith A fossil-free internet by 2030

EP16 - Christina Cassens Too Good To Go, no more food waste

EP 17 - Laura Korčulanin We need to talk about water → To be released this week

So if you do not want to miss this episode, we would be happy if you give us a subscription, it also helps us a lot.

💫 SUX Events & Local Chapters

In 2024 we did a first bunch of local events and we are going to continue with this in 2025.

But we will also start a regular online meetup, where we invite the SUX community to come together and discuss current topics and more.

🌍 SUX Online Monthly:

We got the feedback from the community that there is a strong wish for a virtual place to get together and discuss current issues or challenges and get together with other community-members. Meghan Logan stepped in and offered to help bring this event to life. And so Meghan and I planned a first SUX monthly for this January. We plan to discuss one or two current topics or challenges and all participants will have the opportunity to bring their topics to the table. The SUX Monthly will be a place to participate actively and to get together with the community and there is room for you all to bring in your ideas and wishes. So, if that sounds interesting we would be happy to welcome you in two weeks.

When: 23rd January, 6pm CET / 9am PST, Online

Sign up here to get the invite and Zoom Link: https://forms.gle/okX7tCC89JrXvBzCA

🌿 SUX Copenhagen Event:

In February SUX Copenhagen will do its next event. Details to follow soon and Stine Ramsing will post it in Slack as soon as everything is set.

🌿 More SUX Local Chapter:

In 2024 we started to do a bunch of local events, because we heard you and understood about the importance of coming together in person. Stine Ramsing started the local chapter in Copenhagen and in cooperation with Anna Rátkai and Stefanie Kruse I did a Sustainable User Journey Community Workshop in Copenhagen. In cooperation with Sera Tajima and the Craft we did two local events in Amsterdam, we co-organized the World Usability Day in Hamburg together with uxHH - User Experience Hamburg Anna Brandes and Karsten Lenz and started the local chapter in Bremen with Simon Fenske and Celina Breitenborn . For 2025 we plan more local events and local chapters. Hamburg will start in February, a bunch of cities have already announced their interest and we are in the process of preparing these as well.

Sign up here, if you want to get notified once the exact date of the first event of the SUX Local Chapter Hamburg is announced (event will be end of February): https://forms.gle/QttWyuRQ59mcfsrC6

And if you are interested in setting up a local chapter in your city, let us know.

🎓 2024 saw the birth of the SUX Academy

In June we started the SUX Academy. The main idea was and is, to teach principles and techniques of sustainable UX in a structured way for individual designers, but also for design- and product-teams. The 4-hour Masterclass became the first course and already saw more than 200 alumni in 2024.

We will continue Masterclass and plan to add self-study online-course and a special Sustainable Design Leadership class. In addition we plan to offer Masterclasses for responsible AI together with another wonderful non-profit organization. Stay tuned.

For January and February we set up two new open (and updated) Masterclasses. There are only a few tickets left for the January-Date, but a few more for the February-Date. As always we offer a limited number of seats for a significantly lower price for people in low-income situations or from countries with lower incomes. This works on a trust basis, so please decide on your own if you are eligible for these tickets.

Option 1: 28th January 2025, 5:30pm-9:30pm CET, Online, Tickets and all Infos

Option 2: 17th February 2025, 5:30pm-9:30pm CET, Online, Tickets and all Infos

Team-Masterclass for Design- or Product-Teams: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/academy/masterclass-sustainable-ux

And as a little extra, the 2025 Masterclass will get a new chapter about behavioral design and how to drive sustainable behavior of our users. For those of you who do not know the Masterclass yet: It teaches you fundamentals and tools of Sustainable UX and enables you to start using Sustainable UX in your daily work right after the Masterclass. Upon completion you’ll get a personal Sustainable UX certificate. For all details, please see the event page.

Here is some feedback from participants of recent Masterclasses this year:

🌿 “It was truly inspiring for me to attend this masterclass and I recommend it to any Service Designer or UX Researcher. An evening packed with insights, practical exercises and a looooooooot of wonderful resources to explore further.🤓”- Natalia

🌿 “This experience showed me that it's indeed possible to design more mindful and sustainable digital products and services, and I'm grateful to organizations like SUX - The Sustainable UX Network for this opportunity.” - Ilaria

🌿 “This was an engaging and impactful session that fundamentally changed my approach to becoming a more sustainable designer. I feel like I have all the tools I need to go and implement change in my org and with clients, and educate others too. I can't recommend these class more, I'm so glad I signed up!” - Ella

🌿 Supporting Partner of this edition: Mittwald Hosting

And I am super happy to announce that we have a supporting partner for this edition of the Newsletter. As you know, most of the work of the SUX Network is non-profit and therefore unpaid. Finding sustainable organizations that are willing to support us is crucial to be able to run this community for you. So I am more happy to announce the partner of this edition of the Newsletter: mittwald . I personally know Mittwald and I have on site and seen their hosting-center and their efforts in sustainability in real life. They are the kind of partner we wish for - a true sustainable company closely dedicated to make the digital world more sustainable. So, if you are looking for a new hosting company, Mittwald is a wonderful option that I can personally recommend. Find more information about Mittwald and their efforts in Sustainability here: https://mitt.link/sux

Mittwald: We live the web. We breathe code. And: We love agencies and freelancers. With highly performant and flexible managed cloud hosting, we provide web professionals with the platform to launch their web projects to the next level. Smart workflows and innovative features, like measuring the CO2 emissions per website visit, make your work more efficient. Hosting has never been this fun!

A big thank you Mittwald for supporting this edition of the SUX Newsletter! 💚

💡 Did you know:

2.921 grams CO2 per minute TikTok users generate on average (on instagram it's similar with 2.912 grams). Per year the average emissions per user are 49kg CO2, resulting in an estimated overall footprint of TikTok is likely around 50m metric tonnes of CO2 (to give you some context: the annual emissions of Greece are 51,67m metric tonnes of CO2).

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/12/tiktok-carbon-footprint

Thank you for reading all the way down here. 🙌 We are living in challenging times, but I am personally also convinced that there is a lot of hope. 2025 will be a challenging year and we need to take action, but there is also a lot of opportunity to do so. Let’s start now and together make this world a better place through and within Design and UX.

See you,

👋 Thorsten

Founder of the SUX Network & Co-Author of the Web Sustainability Guidelines, Keynote Speaker, Sustainable UX Trainer, Digital Sustainability Trailblazer and Responsible AI Advocate. Get in touch if you want to work with me or book me for a talk, workshop or training. And follow me on LinkedIn, where I share frequently tipps, resources and thoughts about Digital Sustainability, Responsible AI and Sustainable UX.

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🌐 SUX Website: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/

🎓 SUX Academy: https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/academy

📧 Get in touch: info@sustainableuxnetwork.com