Technology is threaded through almost everything you do — how you study, work, relax, and stay in touch with people you care about. The Sustainable Tech section is here to help you use that technology in ways that support both your wellbeing and the planet.
Instead of treating “sustainable tech” as a separate topic, this section looks at how your everyday digital habits, devices, apps, and career choices all connect. You’ll find practical guides, research-backed explainers, and student-friendly checklists that make it easier to reduce your digital footprint without sacrificing convenience or opportunity.
On this page, you’ll find an overview of what this section covers and suggestions for where to begin, depending on what you need most right now.
Everyday digital habits and wellbeing
The easiest place to begin is your daily relationship with screens, apps, and the web. These pieces focus on habits that affect both mental health and environmental impact.
- Online behaviour and digital carbon footprints. Start with Sustainable Internet Habits: Reduce Your Online Impact , which looks at how streaming, cloud use, and constant connectivity translate into energy use — and offers realistic ways to cut that impact without disconnecting entirely.
- Clutter, focus, and intentional use. If messy file systems, endless tabs, and notification overload are draining your focus, try Reducing Digital Clutter for Clearer Learning and Digital Minimalism for Students: Strategies for Success . Together, they show how to tidy up your digital life in a way that respects both your time and the planet.
- Balancing wellbeing and sustainability. To connect sustainable habits with mental health, digital balance, and long-term productivity, read Digital Wellbeing for Learners: A Guide for Healthy Tech Use . It focuses on creating a healthier relationship with technology, not just spending “less time online.”
Devices, hardware, and low-energy setups
This part of the section focuses on the physical side of your tech life — laptops, chargers, study setups, and the decisions that influence how long your devices last.
- Low-energy study spaces. To redesign your desk or dorm room so it uses less power without feeling less comfortable, use Build a Low-Energy Study Setup: A Practical Guide .
- Making your devices last longer. If you want to delay the next big purchase and cut e-waste, Extend Laptop Lifespan: Practical Steps for Years of Use walks through care, upgrades, and repair-first thinking.
- Student-friendly sustainable gear. For a campus-specific overview of practical choices, see Sustainable Student Tech Essentials: Green Campus Life , and pair it with Low-Waste Note-Taking Tools: Smarter Choices if you’re rethinking stationery and note-taking.
- Building everyday eco-friendly habits. When you’re ready to look at the bigger picture of how all your devices, apps, and habits add up, read Eco-Friendly Tech Habits: Lower Your Digital Impact .
Coding, software efficiency, and greener infrastructure
If you’re learning to code or already building projects, sustainable tech is also about the software you create and the infrastructure that runs it.
- Big-picture concepts. Use What Is Sustainable Computing? Principles, Practices, Impact as your grounding idea for how computing, energy, and climate intersect.
- Beginner-friendly tools. To start measuring and improving the impact of your code, try Beginner Green Coding Tools and Sustainable Software .
- Green software engineering foundations. For a deeper dive into principles and practices, see Green Software Engineering Basics: Strategies & Impact alongside Energy-Efficient Code: Foundational Guide to Saving Power and Low-Power Coding Techniques: Maximizing Efficiency .
- Understanding energy use in the stack. To zoom out beyond code and see how infrastructure contributes, read Data Center Energy Use: Figures and Sustainable Solutions and Environmental Cost of Cloud Storage: The Full Impact .
- Apps, batteries, and practical performance. To connect software decisions back to real devices, App Energy Consumption: A Guide to Battery Usage shows how app design, background activity, and screen time change both battery life and energy use.
AI, cloud workloads, and emerging technologies
As AI systems and cloud platforms grow, they reshape what “sustainable tech” means at scale. This section helps you understand both the risks and opportunities.
- AI’s environmental impact and potential. Start with AI Sustainability: Environmental Impacts & Solutions to see how AI affects energy, water, and hardware demand — and where it can actually help accelerate climate solutions.
- Cloud storage and streaming. Use Environmental Cost of Cloud Storage: The Full Impact together with Sustainable Internet Habits: Reduce Your Online Impact to connect background storage, streaming, and everyday browsing with global infrastructure.
- Bringing it back to everyday choices. When you want concrete next steps after learning about data centres and AI, revisit Eco-Friendly Tech Habits: Lower Your Digital Impact for simple, repeatable actions.
Policy, repair rights, and climate-aligned careers
Sustainable tech is not only about personal habits. It’s also shaped by laws, industry standards, and the careers people choose to pursue.
- Repair, ownership, and access. If you’re curious about why it’s so hard to fix modern devices — and how that is changing — Right to Repair Basics: Access, Laws, and Consumer Rights explains the movement, what recent laws mean, and how it affects students and everyday users.
- From “IT” to “climate tech.” To understand how digital roles contribute to climate solutions, read Green IT vs Climate Tech Differences: Scope and Impact alongside Intro to Climate Tech Fields: Guide to Sectors & Innovation .
- Design and product careers with impact. If you’re more drawn to design, UX, or product work, explore Sustainable Product Design Careers: Guide to Growth Paths for examples of roles that combine creativity, user experience, and sustainability.
- Longer-term study and research paths. For a big-picture view of how computing and sustainability fit together academically, circle back to What Is Sustainable Computing? Principles, Practices, Impact .
How to use the Sustainable Tech section
Because this section touches so many parts of digital life, it’s designed to be flexible. You don’t have to read everything in order — choose the path that matches your first priority.
- If you are overwhelmed by screens and apps, start with Reducing Digital Clutter for Clearer Learning , Digital Minimalism for Students: Strategies for Success , and Sustainable Internet Habits: Reduce Your Online Impact .
- If you want a lower-energy setup and longer-lasting devices, try Build a Low-Energy Study Setup: A Practical Guide , Extend Laptop Lifespan: Practical Steps for Years of Use , and Sustainable Student Tech Essentials: Green Campus Life .
- If you are learning to code or already in tech, use What Is Sustainable Computing? Principles, Practices, Impact as your grounding concept, then move on to Green Software Engineering Basics: Strategies & Impact , Energy-Efficient Code: Foundational Guide to Saving Power , Low-Power Coding Techniques: Maximizing Efficiency , and Beginner Green Coding Tools and Sustainable Software .
- If you’re curious about policy and long-term impact, explore Right to Repair Basics: Access, Laws, and Consumer Rights , Green IT vs Climate Tech Differences: Scope and Impact , and Intro to Climate Tech Fields: Guide to Sectors & Innovation , then continue into Sustainable Product Design Careers: Guide to Growth Paths .
- If you want to connect wellbeing and sustainability, combine Digital Wellbeing for Learners: A Guide for Healthy Tech Use with Eco-Friendly Tech Habits: Lower Your Digital Impact and App Energy Consumption: A Guide to Battery Usage to see how boundaries, habits, and app choices fit together.
Where to go next
Sustainable tech doesn’t exist in a vacuum. As you work through this section, you’ll find links into other parts of this website — from Academic Support to Tech Life and Tech for Beginners — so you can connect environmental impact with study skills, career planning, and everyday life.
Use this page as a hub. Return to it whenever you’re ready for the next step, whether that’s decluttering your digital life, redesigning your study setup, experimenting with green coding tools, or exploring climate-aligned career paths. Every small change in how you use technology adds up, especially over the years you spend learning, building projects, and shaping your future work.