As I’m someone who moves from city to city, each time I get in a new city, I switch the contract of our flat to the more sustainable energy package. It’s a few clicks and then it’s done and I don’t have to think about it again.

You can do the same for the website hosting provider you choose (1) and ask your partners and suppliers if they could do the same on their side.

Action question

Which services do you use that use energy? Ask them if you can switch to a renewable plan.

Footnotes

(1) If you’re in Switzerland a company that is pretty nice for that is infomaniak

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.

Privacy, sustainability, diversity, all of these things can be pretty fucking hard. And when something is hard and we don’t get it all, it’s kind of nice to ask someone else, or a tool to show us what would be the most important things to change. That’s what an audit is for.

When it comes to making services nicer for humans and the planet, we have a good sense for the human side. Just using our service ourselves and speaking with people who use does already a lot. But for privacy, sustainability and all these words that end in y, we can use some extra help.

That could be an energy audit to see where in our buildings we need to change a few things to use or lose less energy. It can be a website audit, to see how we could reduce the amount of code to make websites load faster and use less energy. Or it could be a climate risk audit, to see what parts of our service would get kicked in the nuts when the weather and climate go nuts.

Action question

What aspect of the ethical sides of your service is overwhelming you? Who could you ask or what tools could you use to get an audit that makes the issues and things you can do clearer?

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.

I was in holidays with my son and wife. As usual we like to go visit the local natural history museums. Because that’s the place where my son can see some dinosaurs! This time we were in Aarau, Switzerland. There at the Naturama (1) there was of course some nice big animals. But there was also a lovely exhibition called “Cool Down Aarau”. In it urban planners and other nerds explained how we can change or cities to better cope with higher temperatures, floods and all the shit that will hit the fan in the future.

One of the recommendations that stayed with me was the idea to bring back more greenery and grass. Be it in little holes in the concrete of a parking lot. Or on a roof. Or trees next to roads. Or just as little park within the city.

This additional greenery does a lot of good stuff: it reduces heat, avoid that the rain directly creates floods, looks nicer, just brings a bit of nature back in our cities and apparently can even save lives (2).

Action question

Where in your buildings and service could add more greenery?

Footnotes

(1) The local natural history museum

(2) That’s at least according to a study reported by the World Economic Forum and published by The Lancet that says that “Planting more trees in European cities could reduce heat deaths by 40% by providing shade for people, pavements and buildings”.

Other than that, this reminds me of the principle I wrote a few years ago: “Put some stupid plants to make your workplace better” that showed that having plants indoor reduces fatigue and improves productivity.

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.

I grew up in a Christian context. There is one story of my childhood that to this day impresses me. A Christian community mobilised to write to a prison. There a pastor was emprisonned because of his faith. The prison and the state got so many letters that they felt public pressure. This wasn’t a guy to let die. The stories says because of the letters he got free.

To this day, I’m not totally sure if this was a myth or a true story, remember I was a kid.

But years letter, reading the book “The Future we Choose” (1) this same idea of writing to the ones in power to show what you care about came back in the end summary with the top recommendations of what to do.

We can do the same within the organizations we work in. If we care about an important issue, like privacy, diversity, sustainability, we can write to our bosses. From time to time, we can remind them what feels important to us.

Action question

For what topic would it makes sense to write to the higher ups to let them know what’s important to you? Who are the others colleagues you could bring on to send reminders about that issue?

Footnotes

(1) A book on what to do for a better future with the climate crisis, by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac who are two lovely humans that did the negotiations for the United Nations during the Paris Agreement of 2015.

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.

But at least don’t break it.

Sometimes in the design world, there is all this talk about how Design is gonna make the world better. But in reality, most of us, are trying to do what we’re good at, passionate about in a way that serves others.

Being a dentist doesn’t save the world. But it’s helpful for others. Being a teacher doesn’t save the world. But it’s helpful for others. Being an account doesn’t save the world. But it’s helpful for others.

What we do doesn’t have to be gigantic, life changing or world changing.

Even if I try to do the most good, remembering that I don’t have to save the world from time to time is also nice. (1)

Action question

How can you reduce your (and your team) climate anxiety (2) you have while keeping on doing the most good?

Footnotes

(1 )Jason Fried, one of the founders of Basecamp has a nice article about a similar idea called Knives and battleships

(2) Being anxious doesn’t help, usually it blocks.

Many of us have a good friend who loves a good deal. Instead of buying the high end stuff, he buys cheaper alternatives. And most of the time, this bits him back. The things usually break quickly, sometimes just don’t work, and he often ends up paying the same price as buying a high-end thing because he has to buy several “good deals”.

I have a bit of another way of doing things.

A lot of my work happens on a computer. So having a good one that doesn’t slow down, has strange bugs, and so on, makes a huge difference for me. It’s really my main work tool. Until a few years ago I always had this rule of thumb: “Buy the best device you can afford”.

And this rule of thumb has served me well. My machines (camera, phone, laptop) usually aged really well. Now I’ve added a little extra to that rule of thumb: “Buy the best refurbished device you can afford”.

In fact, the computer I’m using at the moment is a second hand one. It’s a beast, and I wasn’t the first one to use it.

Action question

For which parts of your work would it make more sense to buy high end tools? Where can you find those as refurbished or second hand? (1)

Footnotes

(1) If you are an Apple user, Apple has a pretty good refurbished store. If you live in Switzerland Digitec has a good “second hand” section, and there are companies focused on just selling second hand devices like Revendo. All of these are not just second hand but they come tested and with a warranty.

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.

When I wanted to take better care of my physical health it wasn't easy. There were many little things I had to change to make it a priority. I made time for daily exercises. I subscribed to a fitness program. I talked about it to my friends. I changed my home screen on my phone to see my progress.

The same happens at work or in organizations. If we want to change something, we start by making it a priority. We carve out time for it, set budgets, get trained, and meet people who are better at it than us.

And yes, the same goes for making our services a little bit more lovely for people and the planet(1). We need to make it a priority. We need to set aside time, allocate a budget, and do all the things we do for other priorities to make them real. For some it means adding these ideas in the strategy. For others it means having KPI that are set in the quarterly goals.

Action question

How are priorities set and made tangible in your workplace? How can you use these elements to give more priority to nature and people?

Footnotes

(1) Ness Wright talks about this in her article Principles for Designing Sustainable Services. She covers 8 other inspiring principles.

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.

• Written with AI help: This principle draft is based on an audio note I took while walking that was transcribed and cleaned using Audiopen.

When mattress designer Joel Hügli set out to make mattresses more sustainable, he started by talking to manufacturers, experts, and users. Nothing new or fancy here. But here's one thing that made those conversations different. He asked in a naive way:

How do you do that? What makes this better? Why is it done like this?

He didn't just ask it; he asked with a tone and body language that really showed he didn't know and was curiosity. He showed he was more like a kid who really wants to learn and not like a consultant who asks why in order to find a problem (1).

This naive approach got people to open up about the deep reasons behind decisions, rules, and processes. By acting like he didn't know better, Joel got the full story and saw the root causes clearly.

Action question

What processes in your service or organization make it harder to create sustainable services or great human experiences? Who can you approach and ask true naive questions?

Footnotes

(1) A "why" question without that deep sense of naiviety can backfire as it often puts people in a defense mode. That's something I wrote about in 2019 in a principle called "Recognize that I bring something to the table" which is part of my second book in the Service Design Principles series.

Chris Voss, an ex negotiator for the FBI and the author of the book Never Split the Difference, explains in his book that "why" questions can make people defensive and he recommends instead of using questions that start with "how, what, when," etc. Those question can uncover the why in

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.

• Written with AI help: This principle draft is based on an audio note I took while walking that was transcribed and cleaned using Audiopen.

When it comes to serving others or not killing our earth, there are basic things we can do to make this happen. They're often boring, simple, and proven to work. For example, when serving others, keeping it simply human, does wonders. But we often forget about it and are attracted by the shiny technology. Or, for sustainability, using green energy and turning off lights are basics we still sometimes ignore.

So, it's good to do a basics check now and then. Look if we're still covering the basics in our practice today.

Action question

Where could you integrate a basics check for sustainability and human experience within your work calendar? Is there an annual retreat where you could do this? Or could you just set it once in the next few months to get started?

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.

• Written with AI help: This principle draft is based on an audio note I took while walking that was transcribed and cleaned using Audiopen.

Years ago, a community was struggling. Losing members for decades. The ones left? They hated each other and loved to be grumpy about everything.

New leaders then took an unexpected approach.

They realized that sometimes the thing you're trying to save is what's in the way. So, they decided to let the community die. No more life support. They told people, If you want to meet, fine. But for a few months, we're stopping everything and starting fresh.

Today the community has found new life, new purpose and is serving its neighborhood without grumpiness.

The lesson here isn't just about letting go of broken things and starting anew. It's that sometimes the broken thing is the real problem. And fixing it or replacing it might not be worth it.

Action question

How can you make sure that when you're doing service work, you're considering that the organization itself might be the problem?

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.

• Written with AI help: This principle draft is based on an audio note I took while walking that was transcribed and cleaned using Audiopen.