The 'Trojan Horse' Strategy for Sustainable Service Design / James Chudley / Ep. #230

Service Design Show

Let's be honest, unfortunately not many business truly cares about sustainable services...

The energy debate around AI is finally highlighting digital services' environmental impact. But every service, digital or physical, consumes resources: energy, materials, and even our time. As service designers, we have a moral obligation to design with sustainability at the core.

This episode tackles the real challenges: clients not asking, defining "sustainable," and measuring impact. Our guest, James Chudley, shares key lessons and real-world examples from his journey, showing how he integrates sustainability into daily design.

Discover what it really takes to design services that are better for customers, better for business, and better for our planet. Plus, uncover a deceptively simple design principle that guarantees more sustainable services.

Can you guess what it is? The clue is in this episode.

Keep making a positive impact on customers, business, and our planet!

--- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

00:00 Welcome to Episode 230

05:00 How to define sustainable service

07:30 Are services sustainable?

12:00 James' unique journey

16:00 The Pivotal Decision

22:00 Integrating Sustainability

27:00 The power of minimizing

30:30 Navigating Stakeholder Talks

33:00 can we justify unsustainable services?

34:40 From Sustainable to Regenerative

35:30 Case Study: Circle Community

38:15 Non-Digital Touchpoints

39:57 Avoiding Measurement Paralysis

43:30 Adding a "Sustainability Lane" to Journey Maps

48:30 Principles

42:00 Mental energy

47:30 Community Design Principle Example

54:30 Accessibility in Sustainable Design

55:30 Sustainability as Personal Practice

57:30 the trojan horse

58:30 First Steps for Inspired Designers

1:00:90 Resources

1:02:00 Question to ponder

--- [ 2. LINKS ] ---

Connect with James Chudley:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameschudley/
• http://www.jameschudley.co.uk/
• James' 'Decarbonising User Journeys' approach to help you pragmatically decarbonise your highest value user journeys
• Decarbonising User Journeys @ UXGlasgow (Talk)
• Digital Sustainability Strategy template to help you build a clear, actionable plan for how you are going to minimise the environmental impacts of your digital services
• Simple Steps You Can Take To Decarbonise Your User Journeys
• The principles for the design and delivery of greener services

Books:

• You Can't Make Money From a Dead Planet - Mark Shayler
• Designing for Sustainability - Tim Frick
• Sustainable Web Design - Tom Greenwood
• Let My People Go Surfing - Yvon Chouinard
• Decarbonise Digital - Eric Zie
• How To Avoid A Climate Disaster - Bill Gates
• The Climate Book - Greta Thunberg
• World Wide Waste - Gerry McGovern
• Climate product leaders playbook

Other Helpful Online Resources:

• https://sustainablewebdesign.org/

• https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/

• https://www.sustainablewebmanifesto.com/
• https://designdeclares.com/
• W3C Web Sustainability Guidelines
• GDS Design Principles
• GDS Service Manual
• TalktoFrank - The Government drugs advice website
• Green Web Foundation

Website Carbon Calculator

• Ecograder

• Cardamon
• Website Carbon Calculator

--- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

Join our private community for in-house service design professionals.

⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle