Hasta la Vista, Planet

Sustainability is the new hot topic in design. This year’s CHI 2007 will feature a paper by Eli Blevis, “Sustainability-Centered Interaction Design: Invention & Disposal, Renewal & Reuse,” which is getting good buzz from some important HCI people, Bonnie Nardi and Terry Winograd among them. In what may be a foundational work in the field, Blevis’ paper attempts to both emphasize the need to incorporate sustainable practice into design and to provide a framework for critiquing products and services in this light. Although other products (like the Apple iPod) are discussed in the paper, one new target is Microsoft’s just-released new operating system, Vista.

Laptops in Landfills
Vista is an environmental hazard. According to Derek Wall of the UK’s Green Party, the OS’s green problems are due primarily to a market-control strategy for video. To make the platform more attractive to the entertainment industry—who rely heavily on a proprietary business model—the key programming change is the ability to encrypt and decrypt “premium content.” Social implications of that practice aside, the tech demands for this will require processing power to continuously monitor for illegal distribution of decoded media. Better processors combined with industry-wide upgrade mandates leave a lot of obsoleted computers needing disposal.

In a recent study (PDF), Softchoice found half of North American computers aren’t powerful enough for the minimum install of Vista and only 6% can run the Premium version. By comparison, three-fourths of PCs could run XP when it was released. (In fairness, Softchoice wants to sell computer upgrades. Microsoft has a tool to assess compatibility with the new OS, so check your own machine.)

Wall’s colleague Siân Berry predicts, “Future archaeologists will be able to identify a ‘Vista Upgrade Layer’ when they go through our landfill sites.” Others, including the British Computer Society and Greenpeace, echo that warning. Help from governments is limited and potentially inadequate.

Official Response
Eversheds reported that about three-fourths of IT firms don’t understand WEEE, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive for the European Union effective this year. Under WEEE (PDF), companies may face the strictest penalties, but it is the user most tasked with proper disposal of old computers and printers … requiring individual foresight to negotiate take-back policies as part of service. WEEE’s compliance date—repeatedly delayed—isn’t until July, which means there is a lengthy window between Vista’s release last month and any penalties where no such oversight is necessary.

Although it is wonderful to have government agencies take an interest in sustainable practices, this legislation may not be effective in cutting waste. In a Zero Waste UK report published last November, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) wrote: “[WEEE] will result in increased waste management costs for producers, but, without incentives to inspire new approaches to design, it may not contribute to waste reduction.”

To a Sustainable Business Practice
Microsoft rivals—including Adobe, Corel, IBM, Linspire, Nokia, Opera, Oracle, RealNetworks, Red Hat and Sun— have claimed Vista violates business ethics by intentionally engineering incompatibilities with other software. XAML, a proprietary language dependent on Windows OS to work, is possibly being positioned to replace HTML as the de facto standard for web page construction. Wall pointed out another angle: “This will also further exclude the poor from the latest technology, and impose burdensome costs on small and medium businesses who will be forced to enter another expensive upgrade cycle.” Vista has other problems, of course, so hope for the environment may be found in Microsoft’s own bugs.

Other industries are working toward sustainable practice. IPPR wants the burden of responsibility to be increased on the production end, suggesting a tax on environmentally-damaging products. Candidates for such a tax include disposable cameras and phone chargers, non-rechargeable batteries, goods without free multi-year repair warranties, appliances that can’t be taken off of standby mode, incandescent light bulbs, gas mowers, single-flush toilets, plug-in air fresheners, and brominated fire retardants. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a national benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance green buildings. LEED offers a ratings and certification system to improve sustainable practice in construction of physical structures.

Interface, a company built on a sustainable design business model, specializes in carpets and floor covers. The aim of their model is to redesign commerce, and the site lists several strategies for sustainable business. Interface identifies the Hawken/Lovins book, Natural Capitalism, as recent inspiration.

The computer industry should follow suit, particularly when it comes to improved quality and strategy to promote long-term use. Tony Roberts, chief executive of UK charity Computer Aid International, emphasizes re-use over recycling: “Only when a piece of IT equipment is no longer of use should it be broken down.” Computer Aid International refurbishes computers for reuse in education, health and not-for-profit organizations in developing countries, shipping over 80,000 computers to more than 100 countries. Each refurbished PC has a useful life of at least 3 more years. Computer Aid International’s goal is to reach 100,000 computers shipped by their tenth anniversary this October.

The big question is whether this kind of awareness is too little, too late. Vista is out in the world. Businesses are preparing upgrades. Models of re-use, penalties for environmental damage, and demanding sustainable practices by the companies we patronize won’t put this genie back in the bottle.

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There are other products that merit attention, too, and we still need Kyoto 2 to be ratified, but I leave you with this upbeat take on the release by The Onion:

Microsoft released its new operating system, Vista, on Jan. 30. Here are some of its features:

1. Microsoft Word’s helpful paper-clip icon now blinks at rate of normal humans
2. Enhanced graphics on “System Is Not Responding” pop-up window
3. Five new card-back designs for Solitaire
4. Something that Apple would never, ever dream up in a billion years
5. 4,391 security flaws to be patched over next 15 years
6. Promise of broad, open-minded future or some bullshit
7. Lists blocked wireless connections with greater speed and accuracy
8. New operating system, same old Microsoft Paint