Eco-design

They are two distinct standards, the RGESN for eco-design and the RGAA (derived from the WCAG) for accessibility, with neither one following from the other. They do reinforce each other in practice. Lightening an interface, structuring content, cutting back what is not essential improves both sobriety and accessibility. The two subjects are also often requested together in public procurement, and are better handled side by side from the design stage onwards.

The 2021 REEN law (reducing the environmental footprint of digital technology) introduced obligations for public administrations and audiovisual communication services. The RGESN was created by Arcep and Arcom under that law, together with ADEME, DINUM, Inria and the CNIL, to support the approach. In the private sector, eco-design remains voluntary, but the CSR requirements of large groups and the criteria of calls for tender impose it more and more.

Performance measures the perceived speed of a page; eco-design aims to reduce its footprint across the whole life cycle. The two often overlap, since a lighter page loads faster, but not always. A service can display quickly by drawing on more servers, which improves performance without reducing impact. A good performance score therefore does not amount to compliance with an eco-design approach, and the reverse holds too.

Not necessarily. Designing for the small screen first forces you to prioritise and to get to the essentials, which serves sobriety. But the method does not suit every project: rich content poorly transposed to mobile scatters more than it lightens, and the trade-off depends on the service and on its actual uses. What matters is not the method used but the result, a short journey and controlled resources whatever the screen.

The RGESN sets objectives about the means employed, not about the results obtained: applying the approach does not on its own guarantee a reduced impact. Part of that impact is also played out beyond the scope of design, in the code, the hosting or the content added after going live. Finally, a lighter and more pleasant service may be used more, which cancels out part of the gain. Eco-design reduces the footprint of a service; it does not cancel it out.