profile

Clarifying Complex Ideas, LLC

Tales of a Futurist | Sustainable Content #39

Published 27 days ago • 3 min read

​

Bizarre questions and powerful leverage

I live in a new area, and I'm frequently meeting new people. This means that I have to spend a not-insignificant amount of time explaining my professional interests to random strangers. Some people are curious. Some are dismissive. But one of the strangest comments I've gotten happened last week, and was clearly on the dismissive end of the spectrum.

"What are you, some kind of futurist?" (For context, this was said in a Violet Beauregard voice that evoked, "What is this, a freak-out?")

I hadn't really thought of it in that term specifically, but... yes?

As Wikipedia explains: "Futurists are people whose specialty or interest is futures studies or futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities about the future and how they can emerge from the present, whether that of human society in particular or of life on Earth in general."

At its core, sustainability is about exploring predictions and possibilities about how the present influences the future. It seems to me that we should all be making those connections. I think that in the last five years — the last six months especially — we can really see how the actions of today are going to have an impact on the future.

Right now, everything is coming fast and furious, and we're all trying to stay on top of it like a never-ending game of Whac-a-Mole. I don't know anyone who isn't suffering from a sense of Weltschmerz or world-pain (there is a German word for everything).

This is why sustainable content exists — both the concept and the book. The only antidote to Weltschmerz is action.

The greatest lever that we have for action is at work, not in our personal lives. Foregoing ice cream in an effort to dismantle the climate effects of industrial farming only avoids 0.36 kg of CO2 per kg of product and leaves me without dessert. However, reducing the carbon intensity of our digital assets can reduce emissions by hundreds or thousands of tons.

We have incredible climate leverage in our work. When the Weltschmerz gets to be too much, remember that you can have a positive impact... which means that you, too, might be a futurist.

"We like to think of our world like a waffle. We want everything to fit into neat little squares with sharply defined boundaries: climate goes here, education goes there, and health is over on the other side. We structure our academic studies, our professional enterprises, and even our organizational departments as if they are unique, separate, and unrelated to everything around them. In reality, the world—and sustainability efforts—are more like a pancake: covered in a sticky syrup that disregards our neat little lines and gets everywhere.
​
A widely adopted definition states that sustainability is meeting the needs of the present without compromising future generations’ ability to do the same. That’s more complicated than it sounds."

 

Alisa Bonsignore
​Sustainable Content: How to Measure and Mitigate the Carbon Footprint of Digital Data ​
​Now available​

What I've been reading

Amazon has gotten a decent amount of press about its commitment to using recycled water for its data centers, but data centers (and specifically AI data centers) still use a horrific amount of fresh water.

Most of us probably think of maps in the context of traveling from point A to point B. But for rescuers in a natural disaster, they're essential. Crowdsourced mapping is helping to bring clarity to unmapped places and help relief workers reach people when disaster strikes.

​Individual investor interest in sustainable investing remains strong. "Most investors surveyed reject the idea that sustainable investing comes at the cost of performance. More than 80% believe it is possible to achieve financial gains while focusing on positive environmental or social outcomes, and a similar share of respondents believe companies can drive impact without sacrificing profitability."

Shameless and unsolicited cross-promotion of good stuff!

Are you a podcast person? I'm not, by nature, but I'm trying. If you have time on your hands, may I recommend the Green IO podcast? Gaël Duez is a great guy, and deeply involved in all aspects of tech sustainability. Check it out!

​

📖

Sustainable Content

​Buy the book​

🎤

Speaking Engagements

​Book Alisa for your event​

🗒️

Consulting

​Reduce your Scope 3 emissions​

People are saying good things about Sustainable Content

"Indeed, the book’s discussions of the value and return on investment (ROI) of sustainability initiatives bolsters its persuasiveness considerably. Its examples reach across nations and industries—including the healthcare, retail, software, and sports industries—to reflect the broad applicability of its message, as well as the global and interconnected nature of digital data and climate impact."

- Katy Keffer, Foreword Reviews

​

Alisa Bonsignore

Founder, Strategist, and Author

Clarifying Complex Ideas, LLC

Talking about sustainable content: how to measure and mitigate the carbon footprint of digital data.

Read more from Clarifying Complex Ideas, LLC
The dark blue-green sunburst logo of Clarifying Complex Ideas, LLC

Climate Week and power As usual, I'm planning to go to Climate Week NYC in September. The New York Climate Week event is the most interesting for me, because it's directly plugged into Wall Street and gives a real understanding of what's being funded. This year's overarching theme is "Power On." And that, in my opinion, is the problem. We're funding energy so we can increase our power consumption. Even prior to the AI surge, we as a planet were already consuming double the energy that we were...

13 days ago • 3 min read
The dark blue-green sunburst logo of Clarifying Complex Ideas, LLC

Easy things to do On these hot and humid days where they're trying to get us to skip the air conditioning to save energy, nobody has the energy to undertake Big Things. So here are some incredibly lazy ways to live more sustainably this summer with minimal effort or physical discomfort. Don't multitask. I think we've all had those evenings where we had a streaming movie playing on the TV in the background while sending emails on our computer and texting friends by phone. We don't need to be...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read
The dark blue-green sunburst logo of Clarifying Complex Ideas, LLC.

Shifting responsibility to the individual Update: During the summer (and maybe longer?) this newsletter will be going to an every-other-week schedule. Last week, much of the United States experienced a massive heatwave, complete with intensely high humidity. Record high temperatures were broken in places as far apart as Louisiana (the U.S. deep South), and Wisconsin (northern Midwest near the Great Lakes). On top of that, the strained power grid led to extended blackouts in Philadelphia from...

about 2 months ago • 3 min read