When it comes to the environmental and social impacts of technology, we live in a world of noise with a lack of reliable data and a lot of misinformation. There has been a lack of transparency from suppliers which leads to narratives being constructed in the void. These range from underreporting and downplaying material impacts to the hysterical overblowing of anecdotes and guestimates and substantiated headlines.

DIST aims to move us from narratives, doublespeak and greenwashing towards a quantified data and science aligned approach to reporting on the material and consequential matters of tech. We recognise this is a big bold ambitious journey that will require collaboration across tech industry, sustainability, research and academia and customer stakeholders. Whilst it’s hard it’s also a really important piece of work that Green Web Foundation is really well placed to lead given their position as an independent not for profit.

DIST aims to unify sustainability, technology and business stakeholders to help them understand, quantify and mitigate the impacts of designing, building, operating, using and decommissioning technology.

DIST intends to go beyond carbon emissions to include a full range of material (notably significant) impacts from the use of digital technology. However, this will be a journey and will require a joint effort from across the ecosystem.

DIST aligns with common approaches and standards, including (but not limited to) LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), GHG (Greenhouse Gas Protocol) and GSF (Green Software Foundation) SCI (Software Carbon Intensity).

To get started, explore the taxonomy to get a big picture view, check out the GitHub repo for more details on the schema or work with a DIST-aligned partner to help you implement this in practise.

We are currently building a wish list of people we’d like to have help us build and govern this effort as it will take a village!

Many thanks taking an interest in the project and we thank you for your support!

Hannah Smith (Green Web Foundation) & Oliver Cronk (Cronk Advisory).