How We Engage on Sustainability Issues Through Standards Bodies

Lightning talk points on Sustainability and Standards, 2025-04-24, by Tantek Çelik

Set a good example: Mozilla vision on designing standards and implementations for sustainability
- consider electricity consumption
- reducing rate of device replacement
- encourage energy-efficient technologies at scale
- avoiding high consumption technologies (e.g. proof-of-work blockchains like Bitcoin)
Use our votes on technologies, e.g. formal objection to DID Specification due to use of proof of work blockchains
Collaborate to broaden impact:
- Support W3C Ethical Web Principles, Section 2.9 The web is an environmentally sustainable platform
- Edited W3C Vision: Operating Principle of Thorough Review includes sustainability
- Contribute to W3C Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) for sustainable use of current technologies, in W3C Sustainable Web Interest Group
- Created W3C Sustainability Community Group and co-chairing, for evaluating sustainability impacts of future technologies

Documenting our work publicly: Sustainability wiki page.

Sustainability/2025-04-24-talk