User experience (UX) is a key part of ecommerce; increasingly, so too is sustainability. Yet for many brands, the two are not linked. Their environmental efforts focus on supply chains, responsible sourcing, reducing packaging, and managing office energy consumption. Rarely do they consider the carbon footprint of their digital UX.
Digital experiences’ carbon secret
Yet that beautiful, seamless digital experience has a physical impact, and it's often dirtier than many think.
Data centres are burning through energy; they now account for about 1.5% of global electricity consumption, growing 12% per year since 2019. The need to stay on top of the latest trends, deliver cutting-edge experiences and adapt to the demands of new devices is also creating mountains of e-waste. In 2022, the amount of e-waste generated reached 62 billion kg, with just 13 billion kg formally collected and recycled.
And that’s not going to slow down. McKinsey predicts that the value of agentic commerce – shopping via AI agents acting on consumers’ behalf – could reach between $3 and $5 trillion by 2030. Those agents will consume a significant amount of energy. NVIDIA believes that AI-proofed server racks will consume 600 kilowatts each, up from the 10–20 kilowatts that have been the standard for the last twenty years.
Users expect great UX; there are too many examples of great experiences for them not to. Retailers and brands are continually looking for ways to design, develop, and deliver digital moments that attract and retain customers, spoilt for choice.
It’s not just the pretty interface, but the whole journey, and it should not come at the expense of the world around us.
Sustainable UX is a reality
It might seem odd to discuss sustainability when many companies worldwide are pausing or scaling back their sustainability initiatives. Yet sustainable practices are, more often than not, operationally efficient as well. In reality, companies looking to protect and grow their margins should consider sustainable operations, including sustainable UX.
What’s sustainable UX? It’s the movement to design digital products that are not just user-friendly, but planet-friendly.
This is not theoretical. We have the capabilities to deliver sustainable UX through a combination of technological, strategic and cultural shifts. These aren’t radical rip-and-replace transformations that demand a complete overhaul of everything a retailer has ever known; rather, they involve adjusting where appropriate, replacing only when absolutely necessary, and implementing more efficient practices across the full UX spectrum. All backed by strategies that embed sustainability goals throughout — not just with the end product, but across ideation, development, testing and production.
From a technology perspective, innovations such as green hosting can introduce environmentally friendly practices that help reduce the carbon footprint of UX. These practices include:
- Powering data centres using renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and hydro
- Ensuring those data centres implement energy-efficient techniques
- Carbon-offsetting
- Optimising for lower power consumption
Another tech adjustment is to write performant code, which is designed to be less resource-intensive by using the bare minimum of compute, memory, bandwidth, and storage. As a result, it requires less energy without sacrificing quality: performant code is quick, scalable and efficient. It is also a good example of the digital circular economy in action.
The digital circular economy of sustainable UX
The digital circular economy takes the principles of the circular economy (reusing materials and recycling to minimise waste and maximise value) and applies them to digital assets.
For example, instead of building every new feature or application from scratch, a digital circular economy system treats code, data, infrastructure and design as valuable, reusable assets. The idea is to create a technology ecosystem that can be endlessly adapted and redeployed, rather than a graveyard of single-use projects.
That extends to UX. When developing services and interfaces for users, build them with the future in mind, making it easy for other developers to discover, integrate and adapt.
It’s a mindset shift, treating code as a long-term asset that should be properly stored and catalogued, rather than a one-off project. It’s about empowering teams to approach work more sustainably and connecting them so that assets such as code can be reused.
This is a more efficient way of working, too: if teams aren’t building features from scratch and can use a codebase they trust, they’re more likely to ship products faster. For ecommerce brands constantly trying to keep one step ahead of competitors, digital efficiency is a critical opportunity to differentiate themselves and stand out to their audiences.
Sustainable UX is efficient UX
Sustainability should not be seen as a compromise on performance or profitability; when executed properly, it is not just about reducing a brand's environmental impact but also about boosting operational efficiency. That’s just as true in UX as it is in other parts of the business.
It does not need to involve a huge upheaval, nor is it a step into the unknown. It is about making the right adjustments, deploying new technology approaches, and educating, training, and supporting teams to work more efficiently. Ecommerce will change beyond recognition in the coming years. Not only will more sustainable brands be doing the right thing, but they will also be more efficient, putting them in a much stronger position to capitalise on UX innovations.
