How to make digital services more sustainable
This article explores what it truly means to make digital services more sustainable and how organizations can take action using a modern, responsible approach.
Executive summary
Sustainability in digital services ("Green ICT") is rapidly gaining strategic importance. Responsible digital practices are no longer optional; they reduce energy use and emissions, save costs, and future-proof digital operations. This article summarizes Trail Openers' approach, drawn from our Green Software Playbook, helping you understand how to embed sustainability into software development and digital service design.
What is Green ICT and why it matters
Green ICT refers to practices that minimize the environmental impact of information and communication technologies. It includes energy-efficient software development, low-emission cloud infrastructure, optimized user experience design, and smarter data usage. Digital services account for a growing share of global emissions, making Green ICT a key component of responsible business.
Understanding sustainability in digital services
Sustainable digital services aim to minimize energy usage, reduce emissions, extend hardware lifecycles, and support long-term resilience. It is not just about the cloud or backend; sustainability includes frontend performance, accessibility, and even user behavior. Design choices made early in development can have far-reaching impacts.
Trail Openers' practical approach
At Trail Openers, we use a full-stack framework covering all lifecycle phases: design, development, deployment, and operations. From efficient code and CI/CD pipelines to governance and developer education, our holistic method helps organizations:
- Cut energy and resource usage
- Reduce carbon footprint of digital services
- Improve performance and reliability
- Save costs while supporting climate goals
We guide organizations in embedding Green ICT thinking directly into their existing processes. Our experts ensure that the shift is practical and outcome-driven.
A sneak peek from our Green Software Development Playbook
While we will not share all the details here, our Green Software Development Playbook includes guidance for each role in a development organization, including developers, architects, product owners, and DevOps professionals. It also covers sustainable AI, energy-aware design, data pipeline optimization, and measurement practices.
We believe that making services more sustainable does not require reinventing development, just applying a smarter lens across the stack.
Want to get started?
If your organization is ready to improve its digital sustainability, we are here to help. We share our Green Software Playbook with our clients to support the first steps.
Take the first step toward more responsible digital services.
Contact us today.
About the author
Written by Ville Nordberg, founder and CEO of Trail Openers, advocate for sustainable technology and digital ethics.