Sustainability Glossary

Browse 8 sustainability terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

8 Sustainability Terms

Digital Sustainability: The effort to make digital systems more environmentally, socially, and operationally sustainable over time. In tech culture this can include energy efficiency,...
Energy Efficiency: Using less energy to achieve the same useful outcome, whether in hardware, infrastructure, buildings, or digital systems. In tech culture energy efficiency...
Green Computing: Computing practices aimed at reducing environmental impact through energy efficiency, longer hardware life, better utilization, and more sustainable system...
Green IT: The practice of making information technology operations more environmentally sustainable, including hardware choices, energy use, procurement, and end-of-life...
Green Software: Software designed and operated with attention to environmental impact, such as energy use, efficiency, hardware load, and carbon intensity. In engineering...
Maintainer Burnout: Exhaustion and disengagement experienced by project maintainers due to constant support requests, issue triage, review load, entitlement from users, and...
Project Funding: The money or financial support that sustains a project's maintenance, development, infrastructure, or contributors. In open-source culture, project funding is...
Solarpunk: A speculative aesthetic and cultural movement imagining optimistic futures built around sustainability, distributed technology, ecological design, and...