Gerry McGovern is the author of World Wide Waste, and an expert on sustainability and digital. In his keynote 'Earth experience design' Gerry talks about digital as a world of short-term thinking focused on selling superficial wants, and killing our planet. "We need wisdom, truth, ethics and an understanding of worth that measures the impacts of our designs at an ecosystem level. We must become champions of maintenance and reuse, rather than this constant, relentless and planetary destructive cool newness and innovation cults. We can design great things with so much less of the earth’s energy. We can be part of highly efficient organizations while using so much less data. Let us not go down in history as Generation Waste, the designers whose proudest moment was to fashion the final nail. If we designed our way into this mess, we can design our way out of it."

1. @gerrymcgovern

2. 90% +
WASTE

3. 99.9%
WASTE

4. TAILINGS

5. WATER

6. PLASTIC

7. NEVER

8. SILICON

9. MERCURY LIVER
BRAIN
KIDNEYS
CENTRAL
NERVOUS
SYSTEM

10. LEAD

11. CADMIUM

12. ARSENIC

13. LITHIUM

14. BERYLLIUM OXI

15. COPPER

16. TELLURIUM

17. MANGANESE

18. TUNGSTEN

19. GALLIUM

21. GOLD

22. NICKEL

23. CHROMIUM

24. PFAS
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1034306

25. TITANIUM CHIAPAS
CACALUTA

26. COBALT

27. COLTAN

29. -49% -50%
-63%
-66%
-83%
-90%
-80%
-70%
-60%
-50%
-40%
-30%
-20%
-10%
0%
Species decline since 1970
Marine Insects Irish birds Wildlife Freshwater

32. 3
Li
Lithium
8
O
Oxygen
6
C
Carbon
27
Co
Cobalt
13
Al
Aluminium

34. . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
122
1,535
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
Global smartphone sales (millions)
Source: Statista

36. . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .

37. 239
340
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Global PC sales (millions)
Source: Statista

39. Agbogbloshie
scrap yard
in Ghana.
The
fumes
are toxic
as the
e-waste
is “recycled”

40. 6.5
10
6.3
4.5
4.5
7
10.7 15.5
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
Vacuum cleaner Washing
machine 2011
Washing
machine 2021
Laptop
Life of a machine (years)
Actual
Optimal

41. 2 12 33 64
180
612
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
2010 2015 2018 2020 2025 2030 2035
Data growth (zettabytes)
28% annual
growth rate
90% CRAP

42. 5%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
1
Day
5
Days
10
Days
15
Days
30
Days
90
Days
1
Year
3
Years
Probability of data reuse

43. 1 17,100,000
200,000,000
968,900,000
1,720,000,000
-200000000
0
200000000
400000000
600000000
800000000
1000000000
1200000000
1400000000
1600000000
1800000000
2000000000
Number of websites
Source: Statista

44. Webpage
size
(MB):
2005 to
2020
2005
.4 MB
2010
.7 MB 2015 2 MB
2020
4 MB

45. 3% 5% 7%
25%
60%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
HTML CSS Fonts JavaScript Images
Webpage weight elements

46. 1% 1% 1% 5%
12%
80%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Webpage weight elements (with video)

47. 52
501
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
2011 2022
JavaScript: 900% kB growth – 2011 to 2022
• 37% of mobile page’s
JavaScript bytes are unused
• 80 petabytes a month unused
• 54,000 metric tons of CO2
• 37 million trees
• JavaScript budget: 350 KB
https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2020/jav

48. Calculating the pollution cost of website analytics (Part 4)
If 50 million websites are actively using Google Analytics, then according to my
calculations this could be resulting in 100 million kg of CO2 pollution a year. You’d need
to plant 10 million trees to deal with that sort of pollution.
Most of these 50 million websites will find out very little by using Google Analytics
because the vast majority of analytics data is not useful to a typical organization. If you
are using Google Analytics you are slowing down your site. For what? You have also
signed up to be a surveillance capitalist. You think you are getting Google Analytics for
free, when in fact Google is using you to track people because selling the data they get
from tracking people is how they make 90% of their revenue. If you have Google Analytics
on your site—or any other tracking software—then you are an unpaid tracker for
surveillance capitalism. Those nice little colorful social media share buttons are spying on
the people who visit your site and sending their info to Twitter or Facebook. Why? Why do
you do that?
Tracking has many costs. It makes the Web heavier and slower. It creates a Web of
psychological control. It strips us of our privacy. Why? Most of this tracking and analysis
of what people do on a website doesn’t even improve revenue. It just adds weight and
complexity.
 A Dutch national broadcaster removed tracking software from its website and saw
revenue rise.
 After GDPR, The New York Times cut off ad exchanges in Europe—and kept
growing ad revenue.
 In January 2020, Gartner predicted that by 2025, 80% of marketers who have
invested in personalization will drop their personalization efforts.
Why? Not everyone likes being tracked, likes allowing companies to know about their
inner lives. The more digital we become the more we will realize that data privacy is a
human right.
Data analysis is really, really hard to do well. If you have a huge spike in visitors coming to
your website, is that a good or a bad thing? Are the Web teams of government health
websites dreaming about pandemics in the hope of getting more visitors? Website
analytics metrics feed the Cult of Volume. Often, marketers and communicators are
addicted to volume, chasing the next hit as they try and turn their visitors into addicts
through “engagement” tactics. Such tactics rarely add value for anyone.
Calculating the pollution cost of website analytics (Part 4)
If 50 million websites are actively using Google Analytics, then according to my
calculations this could be resulting in 100 million kg of CO2 pollution a year. You’d need
to plant 10 million trees to deal with that sort of pollution.
Most of these 50 million websites will find out very little by using Google Analytics
because the vast majority of analytics data is not useful to a typical organization. If you
are using Google Analytics you are slowing down your site. For what? You have also
signed up to be a surveillance capitalist. You think you are getting Google Analytics for
free, when in fact Google is using you to track people because selling the data they get
from tracking people is how they make 90% of their revenue. If you have Google Analytics
on your site—or any other tracking software—then you are an unpaid tracker for
surveillance capitalism. Those nice little colorful social media share buttons are spying on
the people who visit your site and sending their info to Twitter or Facebook. Why? Why do
you do that?
Tracking has many costs. It makes the Web heavier and slower. It creates a Web of
psychological control. It strips us of our privacy. Why? Most of this tracking and analysis
of what people do on a website doesn’t even improve revenue. It just adds weight and
complexity.
 A Dutch national broadcaster removed tracking software from its website and saw
revenue rise.
 After GDPR, The New York Times cut off ad exchanges in Europe—and kept
growing ad revenue.
 In January 2020, Gartner predicted that by 2025, 80% of marketers who have
invested in personalization will drop their personalization efforts.
Why? Not everyone likes being tracked, likes allowing companies to know about their
inner lives. The more digital we become the more we will realize that data privacy is a
human right.
Data analysis is really, really hard to do well. If you have a huge spike in visitors coming to
your website, is that a good or a bad thing? Are the Web teams of government health
websites dreaming about pandemics in the hope of getting more visitors? Website
analytics metrics feed the Cult of Volume. Often, marketers and communicators are
addicted to volume, chasing the next hit as they try and turn their visitors into addicts
through “engagement” tactics. Such tactics rarely add value for anyone.
HTML
39 KB
PDF
141 KB

49. DAY

50. 32 BILLION
32 billion would have
to be planted EVERY YEAR to
offset the pollution caused by
unopened attachments, unread
email and spam.

51. @gerrymcgovern
ORG
USER

52. . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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. . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
EARTH EXPERIENCE DESIGN
Long term thinking
solving deep needs
Short term thinking
delivering superficial wants

53. ALMOST 9 IN 10 UK
ADULTS DON’T
KNOW WHAT THE
CIRCULAR
ECONOMY IS

54. . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
DE
GROWTH

55. 38%
53%
9%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Low Carbon
Technologies
Some Behavior
Change
Large Behavior
Change
Achieving Net Zero
Source: UK Committee on Climate Change

56. World Wide Waste
gerrymcgovern.com/www