Podcast appearances and mentions of tim frick

Brian's desperate for cash, until a random ghost writer answers his Craigslist ad for a roommate. Now, he's about to get more drama than he ever imagined. And a young, penniless student arrives at UCLA with no place to stay and is forced to improvise.STORIESRoommate WantedBrian's desperate for cash, until a random ghost writer answers his Craigslist ad for a roommate. Now, he's about to get more drama than he ever imagined.BIG thanks to Brian Boucher for sharing his story with Snap! Brian wrote about this experience in New York Magazine titled “My Roommate, The Diamond Thief.” Produced by Bo Walsh, original score by Dirk Schwarzhoff, artwork by Teo Ducot.The Kipling Hotel – Don Reed LIVEA young, penniless student arrives at UCLA with no place to stay and is forced to improvise.Performed by Don Reed at Snap LIVE in San Francisco, CA. Music composed by Alex Mandel, performed by the Snap Judgment Players: Alex Mandel, David Brandt, and Tim Frick.Season 16 - Episode 12 Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

"His secrets filled the air around him like smoke..."  A young boy idolizes his karate instructor. Each kick, throw, and punch a step on the path to becoming a man. But the power of his presence cannot hold back the questions of his character.STORIESThe Master"His secrets filled the air around him like smoke..."  A young boy idolizes his karate instructor. Each kick, throw, and punch a step on the path to becoming a man. But the power of his presence cannot hold back the questions of his character.Thank you, Simon Shieh, for sharing your story! Read the poems featured in this story and more -- in Simon's debut poetry collection Master.And an extra special thank you to Katherine Litwin.Produced by John Fecile. Edited by Anna Sussman and Nancy López. Original Score by Renzo Gorrio and Doug Stuart. Artwork by Teo Ducot.Ego Tripping - Nikki Giovanni Read by Flo Wiley. Music by Pat Mesiti-Miller.Burning BooksGlynn's mom finds the devil in her house.Performed by Glynn Washington at Snap LIVE. Original score composed and performed by Alex Mandel, Tim Frick, and David Brandt. Season 16 - Episode 11 Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Standup comic Cassandra Dee struggles with depression. She jokes about it in her standup comedy but isn't sure if she can pull it off. She jokes about the kids that bullied her growing up, the bad dates, the suicide ideations, the failed therapy sessions. The audience laughs, but she wonders… has she gone too far? And - a story from a young woman feeling trapped in her body, until one day she finds the perfect getaway vehicle. STORIES The Last Thing on the List from Love & RadioStandup comic Cassandra Dee struggles with depression. She jokes about it in her standup comedy but isn't sure if she can pull it off. She jokes about the kids that bullied her growing up, the bad dates, the suicide ideations, the failed therapy sessions. The audience laughs, but she wonders… has she gone too far?Although this is a story about finding hope, please note it discusses suicidal ideation. Please take care while listening.Thank you, thank you, to Cassandra Dee for sharing her story. Cassandra's comedy special, Uncle Earth, is available for free on YouTube from Helium Comedy Studios. You can also find her on Instagram.This story was produced by Justin Kramon with Ana Adlerstein for the Love and Radio podcast. Love and Radio is like family to Snap. Their stories are intense, strange, and unlike anything in podcasting – and they're launching their tenth season later this year. Special thanks to Aviva DeKornfeld for her help on this story. Huge thanks also to Brett Wean at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Artwork by Teo Ducot.Help is available. If you or a loved one is in crisis, please call the Suicide Crisis Lifeline at 988 in the US. You can learn more about suicide prevention, healing, and connect locally with others whose lives have been affected by suicide through the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.The Minivan A young woman feels trapped in her body, until one day she finds the perfect getaway vehicle.This story was performed at Snap LIVE at The Power Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in partnership with Michigan Radio and The Ann Arbor Summer Festival. Original Music by Alex Mandel. Music performed by Alex Mandel, Tim Frick, and David Brandt. Re-recording mix by Pat Mesiti-Miller.Season 16 - Episode 3 Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Your daddy is a bank robber, the world is on fire, and grandma's last dress is in stitches. There's got to be some way out of this... Chasing the Rainbow.STORIESSalmon Daddy After being fed up with life in rural Virginia, 15-year-old Deni Béchard calls his estranged father with one request: “I want to go live with you.” His dad, he found out, was a bank robber and Deni wanted a life right out of a crime novel. But when he finally gets to Vancouver, he finds out his dad doesn't quite live up to the legend.Thanks, Deni, for sharing your story with Snap! Check out all of Deni's books and see what he's up to on his website. You can also follow him on Instagram or X.Produced by David Exumé. Original Score by Renzo Gorrio.As the World Burns What happens when the world around you starts to burn? Performed by Josh Healey at Snap Judgment LIVE! at San Francisco's Nourse Theater.Music composed by Alex Mandel and performed by Alex Mandel, Tim Frick, and David Brandt.The Funeral DressPaul Valdez loved making dresses with his grandmother at her bridal shop in Santa Fe, but one particular dress he didn't want to make… Thanks, Paul, for sharing your story!Produced by Jazmin Aguilera. Sound Design by Renzo Gorrio.Season 15 - Episode 31

.Did you know you can "get ahead" of the new B Corp standards by better understanding stakeholder mapping?  Tim Frick from Mightybytes joins the show to discuss his B Corp journey, what stakeholder mapping is and why it is important, recommended tools and techniques, and how to address common challenges with the mapping and engagement process.View the Show Notes.Support the Show.We want to hear from you! Text us by clicking here or email us at beyond@lifteconomy.com with requests for content, suggestions for future guests, and feedback about our episodes.

A woman recounts her Aunt's fairytale love story and searches for her own Modern Romance. An African princess learns she is truly beautiful. And a precocious eight-year-old finds himself on the brink of a revolution.STORIESModern RomanceIn the second half of her life, Stephanie found her classic Hollywood romance. Now she attempts to understand the strange and confusing world of dating apps to help her niece – and the show's host Nichole – find her happily ever after.This story comes to us from The Secret Adventures of Black People, hosted by Nichole Hill. This incredible podcast tells the stories of Black people holding it down across space and time. Be sure to check out the show and subscribe to the podcast at TheSecretAdventuresOfBlackPeople.comStay in touch by joining the newsletter, following their Instagram, or by sending an email to secretadventuresofblackpeople@gmail.comModern Romance was written and produced by Nichole Hill with production assistance by Shonte Hill, and story editing assistance by Talia Bender. Special thanks to Stephanie Camolli!Music: Epidemic SoundBeautiful – Sonya Renee TaylorAn African princess learns she is truly beautiful.This story was performed by Sonya Renee Taylor at Snap LIVE in DC. Sonya Renee Taylor is an internationally acclaimed performance poet, actress, educator, and activist. The LIVE score was composed by amazing Alex Mandel & performed by Alex Mandel, David Brandt, and Tim Frick. Watch Sonya's Snap LIVE performance.Liberation – Latif DomanWhen Latif Doman is growing up in Philly, he takes his schoolwork seriously… which is unfortunate for the parents in his neighborhood.Many thanks to Latif and Story District for bringing us this story!Snap Classic - Season 15 – Episode 26

Drama Club is the happy, safe space for Lee and Parker until their school play becomes a homophobic middle school meltdown. The lights get turned up to 10, the adults are in a media frenzy, and the kids are just trying to figure it all out.STORIESDon't Say Gay DadsDrama Club is the happy, safe space for Lee and Parker until their school play becomes a homophobic middle school meltdown. The lights get turned up to 10, the adults are in a media frenzy, and the kids are just trying to figure it all out.This story contains descriptions of abuse directed at gay persons. Please take care while listening.A very big thank you to Lee and Parker—who are best friends to this day.  Thanks as well to Jamie McGonnigal.Produced by Mark Betancourt, original score by Dirk SchwarzhoffPlayground Bullies and Dark Secrets In middle school, Mike has a secret. But no one has ever seen “it.” This was performed at Snap LIVE in Los Angeles.“Mighty” Mike McGee is an international spoken word artist, writer, performer, speaker, slam poet and comic. McGee is the first slam poet to win both the American National Poetry Slam Individual Grand Championship and the Individual World Poetry Slam Championship. Original score composed and performed by Alex Mandel, Tim Frick, and David Brandt.Artwork by Teo DucotSeason 15 - Episode 24

In Episode 9 of Season 4 of the BSuite podcast, host Anne Richardson interviews Tim Frick, founder and president of Mightybytes. MightyBytes is a B Corp certified digital marketing agency that serves social enterprises, sustainable brands, and large nonprofits.  Tim is an active leader and educator throughout the B Corp community and the digital marketing space. In the episode, he shares how he established Mightybytes' Impact Business Models, the challenges that come with using digital marketing tactics in ethical ways, and how business leaders can achieve success while adopting a sustainable mindset.   LINKS/RESOURCES MENTIONED: Mightybytes: https://www.mightybytes.com/ B Lab: https://usca.bcorporation.net/ Jevons paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox Sustainability & The Web: Tim's TedX Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW75oJszcws Solitaire Townsend's LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7149030234300809217/ EcoGrader: https://ecograder.com/  Siteground: https://www.siteground.com/  Designing for Sustainability: A Guide to Building Green Digital Products and Services by Tim Frick: https://bookshop.org/p/books/designing-for-sustainability-a-guide-to-building-greener-digital-products-and-services-tim-frick/8133175?ean=9781491935774 Gaia Education: https://www.gaiaeducation.org/ World Wide Web Consortium's Web Sustainability Guidelines https://sustainablewebdesign.org/ Alliance for the Great Lakes: https://greatlakes.org/

A charming father wins just about everyone over until his criminal ways force his family on a ten-year journey running from the law.  A secret artist becomes an art world sensation but unearths a family scandal. And a bank manager who loves to gamble gets into trouble. Sometimes the con job hits close to home. STORIES Con Man Daddy You're young, fun, and on the run from the law. One kid's journey across the Deep South leads to a big confrontation with the man who inspired it all… Con Man Daddy. BIG thanks to Jason Russel Waller as well as his brothers, Randy and Kel, for sharing your story with Snap! Produced by Bo Walsh, original score by Renzo Gorrio, artwork by Teo Ducot The Art Of The Con What if the real story is even better than the fake story they made up? A secret artist, an art world sensation, a family scandal. Thanks, Ron, for sharing your story with us! Produced by Andrew Stelzer with support from Anna Sussman Insidious by Shannon Cason LIVE And a bank manager who loves to gamble gets into trouble. This story was told live by Shannon Cason at Snap LIVE in Los Angeles. Original music by Alex Mandel and Tim Frick. Snap Classic - Season 15 - Episode 1

A family leaves their busy life in Southern California to live in a little cabin in the woods, without electricity. But then, strange things start happening… it seems this family aren't the only occupants of the cabin. And a story about a grandfather who makes monsters tremble. Snap Judgment presents, “The Stormy Night.” Real stories from people fighting for their loved ones. STORIES Northspur Storm Kathy and her kids leave a busy life in Southern California to live in a little cabin in the woods, without electricity. But then, strange things start happening. It seems Kathy and her children aren't the only occupants of the cabin. Thank you, Kathy Bolte, for sharing your story with Spooked! Produced by Zoë Ferrigno, original score by Renzo Gorrio Shayne Koyczan's Monsters LIVE Night creatures tremble in fear of Shane Koyczan's grandfather, until powers fail. This story contains explicit language. Sensitive listeners please be advised. This story was told by Shane at Snap LIVE in Los Angeles. Original Music by Alex Mandel, performed by Alex Mandel, Tim Frick, and David Brandt. Shane Koyczan is an award winning Canadian Poet, Author and Performer. He is also a TED Talks speaker. Shane's influential, anti-bullying, "To This Day Project" video went viral in early 2013 and currently has over 10 million views and counting. Artwork by Teo Ducot Season 14 - Episode 54

Promises. Some of them are worthless, some have infinite value, and some you will never know how much they are worth… until you have to cash them in. STORIES Birthday Glynn witnesses a miracle... his daughter's birth. Produced by Mark Ristich The Spy's Son Bryan Denson was a court reporter for The Oregonian newspaper in Portland. It could be mind-numbing work sitting in the cheap seats of the American justice system. But then one day he got a tip about an espionage case coming in. The defendant was 24-year-old Nathan Nicholson. For Bryan it would turn out to be the story of a lifetime. For Nathan, it was the beginning of the end. To learn more about Nathan's story, make sure to grab a copy of Bryan Denson's book: The Spy's Son. You can check out his other work on his website. Bryan also wrote a six-part series of Nathan's story for The Oregonian. A big thanks to The Oregonian/OregonLive for allowing Snap Judgment to use tape from Bryan Denson's interview with Nathan Nicholson. Original score and sound design by Renzo Gorrio, produced by Nancy López, artwork by Teo Ducot The Admission Pia's Letter of Acceptance from NYU should have been the best news she heard all day -- but her mother's reaction changed everything. See the film of Pia's amazing Snap Judgment LIVE in NYC performance. Reach out to Pia via Twitter @PiaGlenn / Insta: @Pia_Glenn Original score composed by Alex Mandel. Performed by Alex Mandel, Tim Frick, and David Brandt. Remember The Baby This radio play is about one of those days that you have that changes you forever. It comes from our friends at The Truth Podcast, and it was commissioned by The Sarah Awards from Sarah Lawrence College. It was written by Louis Kornfeld, and produced by Jonathan Mitchell. The part of ANN was played by Ann Carr, ADAM was played by Louis Kornfeld, and Amy Warren was the sister. Produced by Jonathan Mitchell Snap Classic - Season 14 - Episode 43

Do you ever wonder how pride and inclusivity can be built within businesses? As I sit down with Tim Frick, the founder of Mightybytes and a leader in the B-Corp movement, we unravel the challenges that the LGBTQ+ community faces within the rural and urban contexts, the evolution of pride celebrations and more. Our conversation is robust, covering the potential of businesses to be a positive force, the importance of supporting local organizations, and the necessity to create impactful initiatives.Switching gears, we also delve into the fascinating realm of sustainability and organizational agility. Tim and I explore how companies, particularly digital agencies, can leverage a B-Corp certification for continuous improvement. We also consider the environmental implications of the internet, why digital sustainability is crucial, and how we can all take steps to reduce our carbon footprints online.Lastly, we reflect on Mightybyte's accolades for supporting progressive causes.  We also discuss how business can be a tool to create a better future, the importance of fostering inclusive policies for LGBTQ+ communities, how to avoid "pride washing", and how to enact meaningful change throughout the year while navigating fear. A lively and insightful conversation awaits. Tune in and join us.Links from this EpisodeAbout Tim (includes a list of publications)B Corp Certifications and AccoladesB Local IllinoisMightybytesNGLCC, Certified LGBTBEDirigo Collective Website

As a littler girl, Jen Kober discovered the allure of being a brownie scout… the Girl Scout Cookie. Holding out for Girl Scout Cookie release day was another struggle all together. Performed Live by Jen Kober at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Music written by Alex Mandel and performed by the Snap Players Alex Mandel, Tim Frick and David Brand Season 14 - Episode 17

From a young age, Tim Frick knew that he wanted to make instruments. As a teenager, he began building basses for himself. He'd eventually take a class with famed archtop guitarmaker Tom Ribbecke, work at Gary Brawer's repair shop in San Francisco, and then spend years alongside lutherie legend Frank Ford at Gryphon Guitars in Palo Alto, California.  These days, Frick is based in Portland, Oregon, where he repairs guitars and builds his own archtop guitar creations. For episode 75 of the podcast, Tim tells us about his journey, why he uses mostly hand tools, and his thoughts on voicing archtops. We also talk Japanese hand tools and much more.  https://timfrickguitars.com/ https://www.instagram.com/timfrickguitars/ Luthier on Luthier is hosted by Michael Bashkin of Bashkin Guitars and brought to you by the Fretboard Journal. This episode is sponsored by Acoustic Coffee Company (check out their new Gruhn Guitars blend), Stringjoy Strings, and Dream Guitars. 

Welcome to Fact Check on the Environment Variables podcast! Fact Check is a new segment where we take a deeper dive into the bigger questions in a one-to-one discussion with a special guest. Host Ismael Velasco, is joined by EV regular Sara Bergman, a senior software engineer at Microsoft, and an individual contributor to the Green Software Foundation's Software Carbon Intensity project. They discuss Sara's green software journey, the Software Carbon Intensity ISO standard, why it excludes carbon offsets, and fact checking what that tells us about offset-based green software claims, from Google to Blockchain.

Together with Tim Frick, one of the icons of digital design sustainability, we talk about the beginnings of Sustainable UX, where we are today and where the future could take us. Tim tells us where his passion for sustainable design comes from. We discuss the importance of impact measurement and what he would change if he could write his book "Designing for Sustainability" again today. He also shares his years of experience with his BCorp certified agency, Mighty Bites, on how to win over clients and how YOU can make a difference, whether you are a junior or a senior. Feel free to subscribe, follow and like our podcast. And if you haven't already done so, we invite you to join the SUX network. Connect with our guest or us: Tim's LinkedIn Bavo's Linkedin Thorsten's LinkedIn Isabel's LinkedIn SUX Slack Community SUX LinkedIn SUX Website Email us at podcast@sustainableuxnetwork.com to share your feedback or suggest future guests. Sources from the episode: W3C Community Group for Sustainable Web Design “sustyweb” Tim's book "Designing for Sustainability" Tim's agency Mightybites Mightybites Blog The 2022 Web Almanac's chapter on Sustainability by HTTP Archive Leah Thomas' book “the Intersectional Environmentalist”

In this episode, we went to Chicago to meet a legend: Tim Frick

Tim is an example for me. The first B Corp to respond to the call for interview for my dissertation (finishing Dec 2022!).  A leader in the B Corp movement, one of the Best for the World, a LGBT certified company, 1% for the planet and an example of leadership and commitment to a positive business.   Tim started Mightybytes in early 1998 to help nonprofits, social enterprises, and purpose-driven companies solve problems, amplify their impact, and drive measurable business and marketing results. Tim has written four books, which have been translated into multiple languages and are used at educational institutions around the world: Designing for Sustainability: A Guide to Building Greener Digital Products and Servicesfrom O'Reilly Media Two editions of Return on Engagement: Content Strategy and Web Design Techniques for Digital Marketingfrom Elsevier/Focal Press Managing Interactive Media Projects, a project management guide from Cengage Learning In addition to authoring books, Tim has written for dozens of well-known publications, blogs, and media outlets. He recently contributed a chapter to the The Ecomm Manager's Sustainable Ecommerce Handbook and is a regular contributor to B the Change, the storytelling platform for the global B Corp community. 

Ever wonder if there are any principals that can guide an organization way to being better?Join me on Marketing Unf*cked as I speak with Tim Frick, advocate for the responsible, equitable, and sustainable use of design and technology, about Corporate Digital Responsibility and itss 7 principals.In this weeks episode we cover:the 7 principals of Corporate Digital Responsibilityusing b-corp assessment to help understand impactthe importance of aligning your storyhow marketing can avoid green-washing, woke-washing, rainbow-washing...the affect of digital on the environment - no, it's not all good!where the team the created CDR envisions it going in the long termResources mentioned on this episode:Tim Frick on LinkedInTim Frik on Twitterhttps://corporatedigitalresponsibility.net/What is Corporate Digital Responsibility? (blog)7 Core CDR Principles (blog)CDR Infographic (PNG file)CDR webinar (YouTube Video)Mighty Bytes Code of Ethics CDR Manifesto (page on a full blog dedicated to CDR)

In this episode, we invite Tom Greenwood to talk about sustainable web design and his company Wholegrain Digital. Tom tells us about: - His background and how he became aware of the environmental footprint of technologies. - What is Wholegrain Digital about - The Website Carbon tool and the Sustainable Web Design website - The update with new data from Andrae and how they use it - Differences of approach between countries for impact calculation, and the topic of the Life Cycle Assessment - What it involved in being a Bcorp - How to convince customers to embrace sustainability - The trend in digital sustainability - His book Sustainable Web Design Ressources from Tom's work and involvement: * The WholeGrain Digital company website: https://www.wholegraindigital.com/ * The Sustainable Web Design website created with Tim Frick and MightyBytes: https://sustainablewebdesign.org/ * The Website Carbon Calculator: https://www.websitecarbon.com/ * The Sustainable Web Design book: https://abookapart.com/products/sustainable-web-design/ Other references mentioned in the podcast: * Victor Papanek, The green imperative : natural design for the real world: https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/3125924 * Andrae and Edler report - On Global Electricity Usage of Communication Technology (2015): https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/6/1/117#abstract * Hypotheses for Primary Energy Use, Electricity Use and CΟ2 Emissions of Global Computing and Its Shares of the Total Between 2020 and 2030 : https://sciprofiles.com/publication/view/cec6690a8c69e66b2d1798af65611f08

We're reflecting back on stories that give thanks for a monster-fighting grandfather, growing up with same-sex parents, and stuffing your face with Girl Scout Cookies…  LIVE. Even in another tough year, we've got a lot to be grateful for. Snap Nation, every year we make a Gratitude Special and every year we grow increasingly grateful for YOU. Thank you for listening. Commenting. Laughing. Crying. Thank you… for supporting us. This episode contains explicit language. Sensitive listeners, please be advised. STORIES Turn on the Lights - Shane Koyczan The monsters of Shane's night terrors tremble in fear of Shane's grandfather... until his powers fail. Watch Shane perform this heartfelt story LIVE. The Last Mile - Noah St. John 15-year-old storyteller Noah St. John describes the trials and tribulations of growing up the son of same-sex parents. Watch Noah perform this breathtaking story LIVE. Mad Love - Joyce Lee Do not get on Joyce Lee's bad side. Just don't do it. You did it? Oh, no. Back of the Bus - Glynn Washington Glynn has an unfortunate initiation on his first day of school. Watch Glynn perform this incredible story LIVE. Girl Scout Cookies - Jen Kober As a little girl, Jen Kober discovered the allure of being a brownie scout: the Girl Scout Cookie. Holding out for Girl Scout Cookie release day...was another struggle altogether. Watch Jen perform this hilarious story LIVE. All music in this episode was performed live by Alex Mandel, David Brandt, and Tim Frick. Original Music by Alex Mandel. Artwork by Teo Ducot Season 12 - Episode 46

If there was a coach you should look forward to hearing from, it's Tim Frick. Not just because he's the winningest team coach in the history of the sport of wheelchair basketball and not just because he's the only Paralympic coach inducted into the Canadian Sport Hall of Fame but because he's a people's coach… he loves his players… the people that they are. People like Terry Fox and Rick Hansen too. Yeah, he coached them and was a big part of their journeys. Now, he's more than happy to take all of the winning and the wisdom he has gained and share it with us. So, we're the lucky ones aren't we? That is, if you listen. Go ahead and enjoy.

It seems like every day we see headlines about some public company behaving badly. Whether it is environmental disasters, abuse of workers, or just plain theft, companies often don't have an overarching mission to do good. This shouldn't be a surprise, because the main job description for the CEO of a public company is to maximize shareholder profits.But there is a different way, B-Corps. So stay tuned to find out more.Hey everybody, welcome back to another FUTR tech podcast. Today we are talking about a topic I have wanted to discuss on here for a long time, B-Corps, or Benefit Corporations. In 2010, Maryland became the first US state to pass benefit corporation legislation, and to date, 38 states including the District of Columbia have followed suit. Today there are many prominent companies like Patagonia, Athleta, Allbirds and Ben & Jerry's that are B-corps.I first learned of B-Corps from the social media postings of Tim Frick, an early proponent of B-corporations in Illinois. Tim is a Co-founder B Local Illinois and Tim's company, Mighty Bytes is celebrating 10 years of being a B Corp. So, Tim is here to fill us in on why they are important and how they work.Welcome Tim.Mightybytes: https://www.mightybytes.com/Mightybytes Impact Report: https://www.mightybytes.com/benefit-reports/2020-impact-report/Sustainable Design: https://www.mightybytes.com/blog/sustainable-web-design/Corporate Digital Responsibility: https://www.mightybytes.com/blog/what-is-corporate-digital-responsibility/Web Accessibility: https://www.mightybytes.com/blog/web-content-accessibility-guidelines/Data Privacy: https://www.mightybytes.com/blog/data-privacy-checklist-free-download/Mightybytes code of etches: https://www.mightybytes.com/code-of-ethics/About Mightybytes B Corp: https://www.mightybytes.com/b-corporation/Eco Grader: https://ecograder.com/B Local Illinois: https://illinoisbcorps.org/B Lab Tools: https://www.mightybytes.com/code-of-ethics/B-Corp Climate Collective: https://www.bcorpclimatecollective.org/B Work: https://www.bwork.com/B The Change: https://bthechange.com/B Impact Assessment: https://bimpactassessment.net/

Stakeholders over shareholders is the B Corp motto changing the world for the better. The growing B Corp movement is touching every industry, and Tim Frick of Mightybytes joins the show to talk about how companies around the world are coming together to make the Internet more sustainable. **Show Links** Mightybytes website | https://www.mightybytes.com/ Sustainable Web Design website | https://SustainableWebDesign.org  EcoGrader tool | https://ecograder.com/ Wholegrain Digital website | https://wholegraindigital.com  Constant Variables Episode with Tom Greenwood of Wholegrain Digital | https://constantvariables.co/episodes/74  We're hiring! Check out the JMG Careers Page | https://jmg.mn/careers  Email [careers@jmg.mn](mailto:careers@jmg.mn) Connect with Tim Bornholdt on LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/timbornholdt/  Chat with The Jed Mahonis Group about your app dev needs | https://jmg.mn

Vanessa Schneider:  Hello and welcome to the Government Digital Service Podcast. My name is Vanessa Schneider and I'm Senior Channels and Community Manager at GDS.    Today we will be talking about how product teams can play a role in greening delivery. While digital ways of working often mean moving away from paper-based processes, there's still plenty that can be done by professionals in the public sector to contribute to environmentally sustainable practice. The government has recognised the role it can play and set out its ambition in the 2011 Greening Government ICT Strategy. The strategy provides a vision for a sustainable digital delivery and ways of working.   Last year, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which is also known as DEFRA, published the newest iteration of the strategy covering the government's approach until 2025. In it DEFRA identified opportunities across the government estate to deliver energy-saving benefits, for instance, in server utilisation and software design, or to include sustainability criteria in procurement.    In today's episode, on Earth Day, we'll explore this important issue and hear from colleagues who are taking steps to make their delivery more green. Joining me now are Adam Turner and Emily Labram. Thank you both for being here today. Would you mind introducing yourself and what you do to our listeners? Let's start with Adam.    Adam Turner:  Hi, everyone. Yeah, Adam Turner. I work for DEFRA. And for my sins, I am in charge of sustainable ICT across all government departments. So to, to make that happen, basically I-I-I write the strategy and I chair the cross-government group. So manage the governance to make this kind of stuff happen and help and advise departments on delivering all that goodness.   Vanessa Schneider:  Brilliant. Thank you, Adam. Emily, how about you?   Emily Labram:  Hi everyone, I'm Emily Labram. I'm a Lead Product Manager at the Government Digital Service. Right now I'm working in digital identity, which means I'm helping make it easier for users to access government services online. And previously I worked in the world of infrastructure at GDS, so I got very interested in how sustainably we were hosting our services. And that's where I also met Adam and worked with him on improving the sustainability of our hosting.   Vanessa Schneider: Perfect, thank you.    So Adam, at the top of the episode, I shared a bit of information about the Greening Government ICT Strategy, but would you mind giving the listeners an explanation that's not quite so amateur?   Adam Turner:  [laughs] Not amateur at all, Vanessa. Yes, so the tagline for the strategy for the new one that we published in September 2020 for the next five years is: responsible and resilience. I don't actually use the word sustainable or green in the title at all, but basically what I'm trying to say through the strategy, what we are trying to say, is that all our ICT is is delivering goodness. It's part of the solution to the climate crisis and not part of the problem.    So within that, we have broken it down really into 3 key areas. So this is around firstly net zero ambitions, obviously tied into government ambitions for net zero by 2050. So it's linking your ICT sustainability targets with your departmental or organisational sustainability targets.   The second one is around circular. So everything around what we would used to have called waste, but now we more commonly talk about resources. Because if you're using less of the world's resources and you're using, for example, remanufactured ICT and you're taking ownership of that stuff potentially at end-of-life and thinking about where it goes, then you've got more control over the system.   And then the third one is around that kind of social aspect. And, yes, much of this is in the procurement space. But there's also a need to understand this from a design perspective as well. The Prime Minister set out a statement on modern slavery last year that highlighted ICT as a high-risk area. So we need to make sure we're squeaky clean in that area.    Vanessa Schneider:  That definitely brings it much more to life. Your [laughs] examples seem much more practical than sort of the high-level stuff that I mentioned, so thank you for that.    Yeah. So, Emily, as a Lead Product Manager I believe you are, and an advocate for sustainability, I was wondering where you see the opportunities to improve sustainability in your area of practice.   Emily Labram:  Yeah, so a couple of years ago, I started to wonder what the role of Product Managers and digital teams was in bringing down our emissions in line with our net zero targets. And I realised that actually getting a working knowledge of where emissions actually are when it comes to building and running digital services was the first step.   I realised that because services are called digital [laughs], and because they're hosted in 'the cloud', that it's quite common for Product Managers, especially people like me who didn't have a technical background, misunderstood that digital services and the cloud are something almost immaterial. That was the first shift that I made when I started realising that actually [laughs] to host a service, keep it up and running, involves these vast data centres. They are very real, they are very material, and they are kept running by electricity and water [laughs]. Electricity which you know could be produced in any number of ways, some of which could be by burning fossil fuels. And all of that was something of a kind of revelation [laughs] for me a couple of years ago.    And I do think that that started to get complex pretty quick [laughs]. But just to get started by thinking, all right, let's get a working knowledge of the sorts of emissions that my job actually produces was a good first step.   Vanessa Schneider:  Oh ok, interesting. We actually spoke with Mohamed Hamid, or Mo, from the Chief Digital Information Office in Cabinet Office, and he has some more insight into server space and the impact it can have on the environment."   [VOX POP STARTS]   Mo Hamid:  So my name is Mohamed and I'm a Lead Infrastructure Engineer at the Cabinet Office. What that means is I look after the connectivity and the backend of infrastructure that supports the services that we offer to our users. So for us and for me, our users are, are the Cabinet Office staff that consume and use laptops, IT infrastructure, wireless connectivity, internet, access to the internet from offices and then things like-like the VPN, for example.    Vanessa Schneider:  Great, so we're discussing how to green delivery in different parts of ICT within government, so I was wondering where can it go wrong - is there something such as "overengineering" in your line of work perhaps?   Mo Hamid: That's a great question...for me you know, just over-engineering: it is possible. In today's world, there's a big drive to move things to the cloud. So traditionally you'd have your data centres on sites in the office somewhere and you'd have a server room and that's where you would host things like email or applications. But however, there's a big trend to moving offsite to the cloud. And often what I find, and from experience is: the, you know, looking at it from a green environmental perspective is often not thought about and the reasons for that is varying. But one of the reasons would be that isn't really thought of with the requirements. There's all--the requirement seems to be, 'yep, we need to shift, lift and shift, migrate into the cloud'.     ‘Do I just simply migrate all the servers and create virtual machines in the cloud in the very same way as I would do in a physical server room?’ No, you wouldn't do that. You would make use of the cloud tools that are out there and and finding out you know, how do I make use of those tools to better serve the users and the environment.     So to delve even further, what that means is: so in the traditional server room, you might, you might have a lot of servers running and some storage behind that, and that all requires power, and that's all producing CO2 gases, somewhere in the lifecycle there. You, you, you don't need to just have servers running all the time in the cloud. You can only have it running at a minimum level. And then when demand increases, for example, you can then spin up more servers. So this is, we're talking about scaling here. Do I need five servers running 24/7, you know, 30 days of the month all the time? Probably not. You probably, you know, at night time, your demand may decrease.     Vanessa Schneider:  Having flexibility in a contract so that you can scale up and down is quite handy. Is there any other sort of best practice advice that you have to pass on to anybody else who might be working in infrastructure engineering and is listening to the episode?     Mo Hamid:  Yeah, sure. I mean, I mean, I don't think I can cover everything, but I think one of the things you need to look out for - and it's best to do this from early on - is to not use tools that will get you locked in to one particular cloud provider. Perhaps in the future you may want to migrate from cloud provider A or to cloud provider B, or you may want to host in A and B together simultaneously. So being locked in one isn't a good thing because you-you-you might have other players in the future, or we might have a player that are more, more, are more green.   Number two, when you're designing your your IT, or your infrastructure, whatever you're looking to-to provide, security I think also plays a part. Not just because you want to protect your-your services obviously, but also from-from your services being used for other malicious things.    So I had a friend who was running a couple of servers in-in the cloud infrastructure, and then one day he realised that one of his servers was running at 100% CPU consistently all the time. So he logged in and checked you know, what's going on here, had a fiddle around, looked throughout, looked through his server environment and then realised his server was being used for bitmining. So, you know, cryptocurrency, finding the next Bitcoin and his server had been compromised, there was some malicious scripts running. And therefore it was running at full CP, 100% CPU. Imagine that at scale. And then that again is bad for the environment.    Vanessa Schneider:  That is fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing all of these like pieces of information from a world that's so different to what I'm used to. I was wondering if there is anything final that you could think of which relates infrastructure engineering to sustainability yet mentioned?   Mo Hamid:  Yeah, I mean, a final thought for me is probably on a more personal level, I think everyone can probably follow this is: things like clearing out clutter in our emails. And I'm, I'm, I'll put my hands up first for this - I'm, I'm the worst at this. I think I've got about 10,000 emails in my personal inbox. So clearing the up helps because you're, you're, that doesn't need to be stored anymore and because it doesn't need to be stored anymore, eventually down the line that will get deleted. And think of you know, zoom out a bit, in the, that data centre thats running that email server will have it deleted and have more storage space freed up. And then that, if we all do that, there's less storage space needed. So these are little things that we can do. So clear up your emails if you can.   [VOX POP ENDS]   Vanessa Schneider:  So that was Mo. I was wondering, is there anything that you particularly connected with what he was saying or is there anything that you found particularly noteworthy that you'd like to explore?   Adam Turner:  Well, first of all, go Mo. That was [laughs] that was awesome. It's really heartening for someone like me who's been working in this for over a decade to hear someone talking so passionately and eloquently and usefully about this topic. So fantastic.   I'll just pick up on a few of his points. Absolutely, sustainability's a non-functional requirement. People forget this. It should be thought of in the same way as accessibility, availability, security, safety. All of those are-are the same, and you need to think them at the beginning. The challenge is in infrastructure is that industry will be saying we're getting greener by default.   Across government, we've got this thing called Crown Hosting, who are super efficient, and in terms of energy efficiency and green energy and the way that they run things. So y-you move there and it's going to get greener. But the, but the reality is in lots of ways--well there's few things [laughs] going on.   Firstly, we forget to turn off the old stuff. So that carries on running. Because of complications, because it's often not as simple as you've just got a single service sitting on a single set of servers right? So you turn off bits of it, but you've got to leave all the rest of it going. You just lift and shift your-your stuff and you carry across those requirements. And, you know, as again as Mo was saying, you-you don't need to be running this stuff 24/7 in the cloud. You only, you only need to spin it up when you actually need it.   But to do this takes a bit more work. You need that sustainability thinking in there as a non-functional requirement with some expertise right at the beginning of any projects and programme when you're looking at the infrastructure, when you're making the choices so that you know that you go to the right place, you don't end up with that vendor lock in, you-you are controlling the service that you are consuming in the same way that you're managing the costs, you are tracking your use of carbon, and you're getting that data back from those service providers. Because we all need this as increasingly the world will be looking on digital to prove that it's providing a net gain, and not--as I say not being part of the problem.     The-the bit about bit [Bitcoin] mining was-was fascinating. That's--it's a really good classic example of an you know, unintended consequence [laughs] of digital being this huge, huge energy consumption, which is currently estimated to be on par with the consumption of Argentina. So it-it's absolutely incredible and currently unmanaged.    Emily Labram:  Yeah, I totally agree with-with all of that, and yeah go Mo! [laughs]. And Mo reminds me of several very conscientious Engineers that I've worked with in the past. And it's been a process as a Product Manager to learn the role that every member of the team actually plays in simplifying the services that we build on a continual basis, rather than just going super fast and optimising to deliver the features that you know, are user-facing.   So to Adam's point about the non-functional side: reliability, security, sustainability, all of that, it needs to be made, time needs to be made for it. As a Product Manager, I've learnt [laughs], I've learnt to understand that actually I do need to be managing and tracking things like infrastructure cost at the same time as all the other perhaps more shiny user facing metrics that I might otherwise be tracking. So something I've learnt as a Product Manager is to track those as what I might call what we call health metrics.    Vanessa Schneider:  It's great to hear reliability standing out to you folks so much, ‘cause it feels like that coincides with our next clip, where I'm talking to Matthew Hobbs, or Matt, who’s a front-end developer working on GOV.UK. So my understanding of this area is pretty rudimentary but from what I know front end is pretty important in providing that reliability of services - but clearly there's also scope for sustainability!   [VOX POP STARTS]   Matt Hobbs:  Sure, my name is Matthew Hobbs or Matt Hobbs, I'm the Head of Frontend and a Lead Frontend Developer at the Government Digital Service.    Vanessa Schneider:  So for someone who doesn't know, like myself, what front-end is, can you please first explain what falls under front-end, and then, because I'm not [laughs] asking enough of you, how can it be used to support our ambitions of becoming more environmentally sustainable?   Matt Hobbs:  That's a big question.    Vanessa Schneider:  It's a big one.    Matt Hobbs: It's a big question, yeah.   So essentially, a lot of the computation that happens in a user's browser happens within the frontend essentially. So what you see as a person coming to our website that is essentially the frontend - the pixels being drawn to a screen - is the frontend code essentially. So there's a lot of computational power that goes into that. So by optimising the frontend, you can actually make things better from a-an environmental point of view and from a performance point of view and from a user interaction point of view as well. So that's essentially where fron-frontend comes into this piece of the puzzle.    Vanessa Schneider:  So do you have a practical example where you have perhaps optimised the code in order to improve the performance and make it more sustainable when it comes to website content?     Matt Hobbs:  Yes, so probably the, the one that I always go back to is, is from around about 2018, 2017-2018, where we were delivering our fonts for GOV.UK in a very specific way. It was quite an old school way of delivering fonts that was actually making it heavier, as in the page weight heavier for users. And we reworked how they were delivered to users, or delivered to browsers. And therefore it sort of streamlined the experience and actually cut down the amount of data that was actually being used on the frontend. And it, overall, it should have improved the experience for-for the vast majority of users.    Vanessa Schneider:  So I was wondering on that front, does it matter what kind of equipment the user has when it comes to how you code it? Or should the code work for anything, whether I've got an old Nokia phone or the newest iPhone?    Matt Hobbs:  So where, how we approach frontend development at GDS is using a methodology called progressive enhancement. So essentially we build the lowest minimum viable product first and then layer on additional features as they as, as you work through it. So if, if you're using a modern browser and it supports modern features, it will get a more modern experience. Whereas if you are on an old, old browser on an old device, they will, users with these devices will receive an experience that works, but it won't be all the bells and whistles essentially.    As you are on more modern hardware and you are on a more modern browser, it's able to cope with that. Whereas if you are on an old device or an older browser, there's the assumption that the actual hardware involved in the device won't be able to cope with that additional code.    Vanessa Schneider:  Brilliant. So if we have anybody who is a frontend developer listening, is there any way that they can access this kind of best practice?   Matt Hobbs:  Yes, we have, we have some guidance in the service manual and we also have some guidance in the GDS way as well.   Vanessa Schneider:  So if they’re working on their own and are faced with a huge project, do you have any words of advice or motivation?    Matt Hobbs:  Well, yeah, I mean, the, and as you would say around improving accessibility for a website, the it's important to realise that it doesn't always need to be solved at once as long as you are improving it a little bit every day. And it's better than it was the day before. That's essentially the best you can do. And that's essentially how you should look at web performance optimisation as well as the sustainability aspects is: have I improved it today? Yes. Then we're going in the right direction.   [VOX POP ENDS]   Vanessa Schneider:  Right, that was Matt.   Emily Labram:  Yeah, I love what Matt said, and I always, I've discovered how important Frontend Developers and Designers are in the effort to reduce complexity, to reduce cost emissions and also the beautiful like win-wins that Matt was talking about.   So I love the fact that in improving performance that Matt would also be making it possible for users who have older phones to carry on having a good experience, which means they don't have to throw their old phones away, which is something that I with my old brick really [laughs] appreciate, and also makes a service more equitable, inclusive. Which is something that, because we're in government, we have to care about making things work for everyone, making things accessible for everyone. And it's also something that makes working government super exciting because we get to care about this. So, yeah. Thanks, Matt. Very cool.     Adam Turner:  Yeah, e-equally loved what Matt said. The-the things, we've talked largely about greening ICT so far, but, but what Matt's picking up on there is that sustainability is about all three pillars - you know, it, it's social and environmental, and about cost savings as well. And, and those three things in balance.   So if you're making a service, if you're designing service, making a webpage as easy to use as possible, and as Emily said, you can still work on a Nokia 3310 - although that wouldn't actually be possible, would it? But I think that's really, really important because those end users have a better experience: it's quicker, it's slicker.   And often to remember from a sustainability point of view, often in-in terms of government services especially, we're replacing older sort of paper-based systems or manual systems, which, which of course has that saving as well. So you want something that works crisply and cleanly and, and it needs to be simple.   And obviously the-the more simple it is and easy to use, the happier the-the end user is and who ends up using less energy. And you've got happier people and they've saved time and the whole thing's costing you less to run, and it all fits together really nicely. But it's a massive growing area that isn't really appreciated yet. And if you spend a bit more time, a-a bit of thought into what you're delivering, you're going to end up something that's going to keep everyone happier and, you know, will run more efficiently and cost you less.    Vanessa Schneider:  So there's definitely something about taking your time and getting it right the first time to make it last - so the way Matt was talking about progressive enhancement, it's nice to know that you know, nobody will have to go back to the code and redo it from scratch as innovations come and go, like it’s, it's built up in a simple way, a bit different from the way that teams will occasionally accumulate tech debt because there are urgent deliverables.   Emily Labram:  Yeah, I love that too. And as I've got more senior as a Product Manager, I do see now that my role as a Lead Product Manager is to push back sometimes and to create space for teams so that they do have the time, they have the time and the freedom to do things in the right way, to do that hard work that we always talk about at GDS to kind of make things simple for users.    And...it's really a delivery thing as much as it is a product thing, but it's about the way that we work: and the, it's iterative, we use the Agile approach and that that means that we do reduce waste because we test early and often, we find out what works from the riskiest first. And that means we can deliver little bits of value early and often continuously, and that we waste less. So that's a kind of key, key part of how, as digital people, we, we help in the effort to kind of reduce emissions.    Vanessa Schneider:  Yeah, it, it kind of reminds me of the reuse, reduce, recycle mantra actually.    Adam Turner:  Yeah, there's an awful lot of research out there from, from universities showing now that, you know, that kind of law of ever increasing performance of things and increasing capacity - is it Moore's Law? Can never quite remember. But yes, the, basically you can go, you can use refurbished servers and they are performing, or even outperforming new servers. And obviously, if you're buying refurbished kits, that stuff hasn't been dug out of the ground, sort of virgin resources, you're re-utilising as well. So embedding that kind of circular thinking into your hosting et cetera, it, you know the, the pace of development is not something that's scary anymore. It's quite fine to use a more sustainable alternative.    Emily Labram:  On that point about circularity as well, I also wanted to recognise Product Manager's role to, to sometimes notice that we can retire things, whether that's even just a feature that no one's really using or whether it's an entire product or service and then, and continually retiring things from small to big as well as continually building that circularity also helps, I think, to kind of minimise the amount of energy that we are using to keep the stuff that we have up and running.   Vanessa Schneider:  Yeah, yeah, definitely good points. I know that we've been talking sort of about the physical quite a lot. But actually the thing that the user most interacts with when it comes to government services is the written word - so we have the good fortune [laughs] of one of GDS's content writers sharing their perspective with us.   [VOX POP STARTS]   Rosa Ryou:  Hello, my name is Rosa and I'm a Content Designer with the GOV.UK Accessibility Team. But what that means is I help other Content Designers make sure that everything on GOV.UK is as accessible as possible to everyone who visits GOV.UK.    Vanessa Schneider:  Brilliant. So it's like guidance, attachments like PDF or HTML preferably, of course. And I think would, would easy reads fall into content as well?   Rosa Ryou:  Easy read does fall into content. And that is to do with accessibility. So there, there is some guidance on that. But it can also be simple things like heading structures and using images and how to make that accessible, how to make your videos accessible. And all those little things also help save the environment as well, because it means people will spend less time looking, looking at things.   We do follow a style guide. So that there is consistency in how any piece of content is-is presented to our users. All our content is about making it easier for for people to find the information they need or to complete a transaction that they need to do to get on with their lives.   A good piece of, good content design is almost something that you don't actually notice. It's just there. And next thing you know, you're like, 'Oh, I know the information that I was looking for' or 'oh wow, I've just applied for a new passport. Didn't even know that was going to be that simple' kind of thing. So in that respect, you-you're making your users save a lot of time on whether it be their desktop, on mobile. And I think that has to be good for the environment because they're spending less time.    Vanessa Schneider:  Definitely, yeah, I think there's so much that content design can influence on the user end of things with reducing their electric consumption. Another thing that I was thinking of that falls into content design is also sort of the-the guidance that you give on use of images, for instance, or trying to apply plain English, is that right?   Rosa Ryou:  Yeah, yeah, that is very right. I mean with images, we are very clear that you really shouldn't be using images for decorative reasons. And I think you will, you'll probably have noticed that a lot of the times people like to have an image on a page just because that's what they're used to doing it. But if it adds absolutely no value to the content, then there's no need for you to add an image.   But of course, there will be instances where you may need to have an image: for example, if you're showing graphs or charts. But even then, we make sure that it's not, it's not a massive file size so that it takes a long time to upload or anything like that. And but we also make sure that any image used in GOV.UK that there is enough description within the text so that if you don't have the image, you'll still be able to understand the whole content.    It's a bit like, it's a bit opposite to your university days actually. You know how you-you have a word limit for your essays [laugh from Vanessa] and you write 100 words and you're thinking, well, how can I make this like 500? I think in content design you start with 100 words and you end up with 20 words.    [VOX POP ENDS]   Emily Labram:  Oh Rosa's so brilliant. Yeah, well, that was all about the beauty of doing away with anything unnecessary and getting to something incredibly simple. And I think it just speaks to the role that every single person on a team, in fact, every single person in the organisation actually has in cutting away that kind of cruft, that waste and getting to the simplest process or the simplest experience for users. And in that process, getting rid of unnecessary electricity usage, waste, et cetera, and therefore emissions.   Adam Turner:  Yes, I-I loved what Rosa was talking about. I've-I've fallen foul of-of these guidelines, I must admit, so I've learnt things the hard way, despite working in sustainability for as long as I have developing strategies and, and reports that I've laboured over, created fantastic diagrams only to have the GOV.UK style team say: 'really? [laughs] Do you need that? And what it makes you realise is yeah, actually a lot of it is just fluff. So you just read the facts and boil it right down.    Vanessa Schneider:  I think one of the things that makes me really excited about Rosa's contribution is also a lot of the time people maybe get told that, you know, words don't really necessarily have the same impact. But in this case, the words are making the impact, you know, by thinking about how you phrase things, thinking about being able to be more concise or making things easier to understand. It then means people are spending less time on the page. They're able to go-get ahead with what they're doing much faster. And that that has that, that effect that people are essentially using less electricity and contributing less to emissions. So, yeah, I don't know, I just sort of like that cheesy thought of the pen is mightier than the sword.    Adam Turner:  Hey, it's, it's not cheesy at all. Like I say, I had to learn this the hard way. It's so easy when you're designing a-a website or creating a document or a, content or whatever to say refer to diagram, you know, reference image one or something. But you're not actually explaining it. And it really makes you sit down and think about what it is that you're trying to get across. And there's some really, really great people across the content teams across government that have, that have got this nailed in, in how to make this simple and effective. And you're right, it takes up less space, got less servers running in the background, and people can access the information quicker and more efficiently. And that has to be a good thing.     Emily Labram:  Also on that, it's about getting the right trade offs, I think is what you know, the-the great skill that the Content Designers have is that they're able to, to get to that 20 words, but those 20 words are actually the right ones and they get across exactly what's needed, even though there's hardly any words there at all. I think what you're pointing out, Adam, is these trade offs are quite painful sometimes. You-you might have invested loads of time in-in kind of perhaps it's a particular feature or it's a piece of content or it's a you know, a user journey and, and then having those brave, difficult conversations to kind of challenge and go: actually, do we need all of that? How does that actually work in user research in practice, and being ready to sort of kill off stuff that isn't working.   I think that's why you need highly skilled people in these disciplines in order to help make the best possible trade offs between you know, for example, the amount of bandwidth that the NHS service is using for video and the amount of usefulness of that video to users and getting the amount of bandwidth for the, the exact decision right, and, or iterating those over time.   Adam Turner:  So I'd like to make a couple of little plugs, if I may. Firstly, the, the strategy that we mentioned right at the beginning Vanessa, mentions the idea of a responsible digital citizen. And the idea behind that was me trying to get across - and I've been engaging with the DDaT profession across government to try and make this happen - is that every single role across the Digital, Data and Technology profession across government recognises that they need to think about everything through the sustainability lens. And I think personally that's really important. And I think what we've heard today is even in the most unlikely places, like how, how we put things on a webpage and you know, how we think about the phrasing of those words to replace a picture, and actually that's going to be better, is, is having a huge sustainability benefit.    So the other quick plug I'd like to mention is the professional body of IEMA, Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, and their basic drive is that everybody in every profession should think about sustainability. So that's just as relevant to us here in Digital and Data as it is to everyone else.   Vanessa Schneider:  Yeah, so obviously we've heard from three colleagues and we've had Emily as well in the podcast, giving us these practical measures that maybe people who are listening who work in the digital space could apply or convince their colleagues to apply. I was wondering whether we can maybe pull back a little bit and think about sort of like what effect we're hoping this will have. And maybe that's something, again, for you, Adam, to talk about. But I know, Emily, you're quite invested in in sustainability work as well and it might be an opportunity for you to reflect on why this is important to you as well.   Adam Turner:  Sure. So, as I say, the most important thing for organisations out there to, to, you've got to understand where you are at the moment. And the most effective way of doing that is to look at your current ICT footprint. So there's numerous ways you can do that. But effectively it's your asset register with a bunch of assumptions tagged to it. And then once you understand that and then you start looking at your ICT waste, you get this, this picture of where you're at.    Now obviously increasingly we've been talking about the move to the cloud. And the big chunk of the work we've been involved with for the last couple of years has been working with our cloud suppliers to try and understand our footprints in the cloud. We've been working really closely with our key service providers in public cloud, private cloud and more traditional hosting to try and get to the bottom of that. Once we got all of that - and we are publishing a new report in the next couple of months - and we've got the last 10 years worth of reports up there, you can see the government footprint for our hosting.   All the stuff that we've been talking about today you would hope would help bring that figure down and it would get lower. And then all the other benefits in digital that kind of, that we've all experienced through COVID, you know, all that reticence that was out there for using tools like Zoom, with cultures that told people that they had to go to offices, they had to commute - suddenly that's all up in the air.   And you can see all of the savings across, carbon savings from travel, from hopefully flights - we'll see where that one goes - from...well, other areas as well. And y-you can see all those coming down and they've been enabled through digital. But we don't want digital to keep rising up. Data growth is rising exponentially. But the hosting of that is not rising exponentially because we are managing to green the grid and operators are greening.   Vanessa Schneider:  Great, thank you, Adam. Yeah, Emily, any personal reflections regarding why, why you want to have this positive impact on environmental sustainability?   Emily Labram:  I think what motivates me is to know that I am doing, doing my bit in my role, that I know how my role connects to the commitments that we've made as a nation. And that's taken two forms now.    First thing is hampioning the commitments that we have made and making sure that as an organisation, that we are tracking, we are managing our emissions in the same way as we manage the other things that we care about. And so I have pointed to Adam's work and pointed to the tools that are available and asked questions at the relevant moments. [Laughs] And we've made some good progress there.   But the other thing I think I've realised is that it's about really focussing on what I can do within my craft and within my role and how I can become a more deep expert on what it means to do Product Management in a sustainable way, what it means to lead Product Teams and enable them to do, to build products in sustainable ways. And that's where my effort and my interest is now.   Adam Turner:  I think it's important to recognise where IT and digital has moved from. And it's moved into the centre of organisations and therefore vital to deliver their corporate agenda and their commitments. So whatever organisation is out there, it-it, it's unfeasible to say that you, you can deliver the objectives of your organisation and your commitments whoever you are, whether your sustainability organisation or not, you can't do it without digital and tech.   But I think it's very important to know that we're, we're at the beginning of this journey in recognising how everyone can get involved. And it's great, the, the momentum’s there. Everyone's really passionate about this. Everyone's recognising that they need to cut down on their flights. Think about, you know, the meat they consume. Think about where their energy is being sourced. And slowly but surely, we're waking up to the role of digital and tech in that. And as we learn more about this, we as a profession can share expertise. And it's been wonderful to hear all of these examples today. And get this as part of training for everyone and share best practices and really start to create the momentum to push this forward.   Emily Labram:  I was going to recommend Designing for Sustainability by Tim Frick. And I would say if there's any digital folk listening who want to just start to get a more, a general understanding of where emissions are and how they can be managed and reduced in digital team, that's the book that's helped me out the most.   Vanessa Schneider:  Gosh, it's so exciting [laughs] hearing you respond so positively to what's already happening in government. I know it's Earth Day, which of course will be a reminder to many to think about the impact their actions have, but much more encouraging that even when it's not Earth Day, these efforts are underway here.   So on such a positive note, I want to say thank you so much to all of our guests for coming on today and sharing all this best practice and giving us motivation, hope, advice to do our best when it comes to greening in government, especially in the digital space. So you can listen to all the episodes of the Government Digital Service Podcast on Apple Music, Spotify and all other major podcast platforms. And the transcripts are available on PodBean. Goodbye.    Adam Turner:  Bye. Thank you.   Emily Labram:  Bye everyone. 

Glynn finds a cheap place to spend the summer… at a halfway house. This story was performed at Snap LIVE in Los Angeles and was presented by KPCC. Original Music by Alex Mandel, performed by Alex Mandel and the Snap Players (David Brand and Tim Frick). Watch the live performance! Season 12 - Episode 10

Is your website environmentally sustainable? Are there gender or racial biases in your AI algorithm that impact your relationship with potential loan applicants or prospective employees? Do you involve all stakeholders in your technology initiatives? If you're not sure about the answers to any or all these questions, you're not alone. Tim Frick, CEO, author, and expert on digital ethics, joins us to talk about why we should start talking about on the emerging concept of digital responsibility, what areas your credit union needs to focus on to be digitally responsible, and how we can stop tweeting our way to a warmer planet. Tune in for this month's BIG question: What is digital responsibility and how can your credit union do better?

A woman recounts her Aunt’s fairytale love story and tries to find her own Modern Romance. A balding African princess learns she is truly beautiful. And a precocious eight-year-old finds himself on the brink of revolution when he applies lessons learned from a homework assignment to other areas of his life. STORIES Modern Love In the second half of her life, Stephanie found her classic Hollywood romance. Now she attempts to understand the strange and confusing world of dating apps to help her niece - and the show's host Nichole - find her happily ever after. This story comes to us from The Secret Adventures of Black People, hosted by Nichole Hill. This incredible podcast tells the stories of Black people holding it down across space and time. Be sure to check out the show and subscribe to the podcast at TheSecretAdventuresOfBlackPeople.com Stay in touch by joining the newsletter, following their Instagram, or by sending an email to secretadventuresofblackpeople@gmail.com Modern Romance was written and produced by Nichole Hill with production assistance by Shonte Hill, and story editing assistance by Talia Bender. Special thanks to Stephanie Camolli! Music: Epidemic Sound Beautiful - Sonya Renee A balding African princess learns over time she is truly beautiful. This story was performed by Sonya Renee Taylor at Snap LIVE in DC. Sonya Renee Taylor is an internationally acclaimed performance poet, actress, educator, and activist. The LIVE score was composed by amazing Alex Mandel & performed by Alex Mandel, David Brandt, and Tim Frick. Watch Sonya’s Snap LIVE performance. Liberation - Latif Doman When Latif Doman is growing up in Philly, he takes his schoolwork seriously… which is unfortunate for the parents in his neighborhood. Many thanks to Latif and Story District for bringing us this story!

Why has the Canadian women's wheelchair basketball program enjoyed such great success for the past two decades? We speak with three-time Gold medal winning coach, Tim Frick about coaching for high performance and his induction into the Order of Canada. With a COVID-19 vaccine on the horizon, do athletes and fans still harbor doubts about the upcoming Olympic Games? Our panel discusses.

"We pursue profit as any other company does, it’s what we do with that profit that makes us different” – Listen to Tim Frick of Mightybytes discuss climate, profit, and B Corporations.

Police shootings, mistaken arrests, and growing up Black / Brown up in America. This week, Snap presents amazing stories from people facing our nation’s original sin. STORIES Never Again Glynn and his family protest in Oakland where thousands gather to scream light at our national darkness. Produced by Pat Mesiti-Miller  Thick Blue Line In 2012, Kari Brandenburg became the longest-serving district attorney in Bernalillo County, where Albuquerque sits. But at the start of her fourth term in office something big started to take hold of the county. Police shootings were at an all-time high and everyone was looking to Kari’s office for answers. For more on what went down in Albuquerque, check out Jeff Proctor’s reporting for the Albuquerque Journal. Produced by Nancy Lopez, original score by Renzo Gorrio Captive Audience  When Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter was mistakenly arrested at the airport, he learned that his fame could only get him so far. Performed live by Tariq Trotter at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Snap Judgment LIVE. Music by Alex Mandel, performed by the Snap Players Alex Mandel, Tim Frick, and David Brandt. DRANO A reluctant young Boy Scout comes face to face with DRANO, and earns his merit badge in "reality." Shannon Cason is a writer, award-winning storyteller, and the host of the Shannon Cason’s Homemade Stories podcast and the In Good Co. Detroit podcast. Listen and subscribe!  Produced by Mark Ristich Episode Artwork: Teo Ducot  Protest tape: Annie Nguyen + Lauryn Newson Episode production: Pat Mesiti-Miller We stand with the black community. We stand with our black listeners, storytellers, employees, creators, supporters, family, and friends. Please stay strong and stay safe as we write the next chapter of our collective history. 

An openly gay luchador full of talent faces an uphill battle to get the crowd and the press on his side. A woman takes on superhero duty, serving as a heroine of the streets. And Neal Brennan rocks three mics. Snap Judgment presents, “The Performers.” Exploring the magic behind the stagecraft. STORIES Magic Lamp Glynn's good luck charm goes missing. Produced by Mark Ristich Cassandro El Exotico Cassandro is an up-and-coming luchador, a professional Mexican wrestler. He wants to get to the big arenas. He's got the talent, no doubt. But because he's also one of the only openly gay fighters, he's got an uphill battle to get the crowd and the press on his side.  Produced by Eliza Smith, original score by Leon Morimoto  The Lusty Lady - Gina Gold  Pimps beware! Gina Gold is on superhero duty. Performed live at Snap LIVE! in Oakland's Paramount Theater Music composed by Alex Mandel, music performed by Alex Mandel, David Brandt, and Tim Frick  Three Mics - Neal Brennan  Neal Brennan writer, director, comedian and co-creator of Chappelle's Show is in the studio telling a story from his one-man show, "3 Mics". Performed by Neal Brennan, produced by Lina Misitzis and Mark Ristich Snap Classic - Season 7 Episode 10 The beat doesn’t happen without YOU. Support Snap storytelling... stories you won't hear anywhere else. 

When Josh Healey learns some unexpected news from his girlfriend, his first thought...is of Grandma Barbara and Grandma Henrietta.Performed Live by Josh Healey at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.Music written by Alex Mandel and performed by the Snap Players Alex Mandel, Tim Frick and David Brandt Season 7 Episode 3

Tim Frick is the CEO of Mightybytes, a certified B Corp digital agency based in Chicago. Mightybytes connects conscious companies and nonprofits to the digital solutions they need to create greater impact through online success. In addition to running his 22 year-old agency, he is an avid writer and a leader in the B Corporation community with a passion for sustainability. Through blog posts, his own books, and conversations like ours, Tim shares his successes and challenges in building an enduring company in the ever-changing digital industry all while maintaining focus on their mission of sustainability and making an impact in the community. In this episode, he provides insight into how he has been able to balance his roles as a writer and a CEO, the process of developing Mightybytes’ mission-driven identity, and the potential to achieve sustainability goals within the existing framework of your company. A few takeaways from our conversation: How to manage a schedule with writing, being the CEO of a substantial business, while supporting the growth of the sustainable business community. How Tim’s desire for greater impact led him from working as a freelancer to growing Mightybytes to where it is today. How impact-motivated companies can use the B Corp certification process and B Impact Assessment as a roadmap for their company’s development and vision. The benefits of approaching sustainability and company problem-solving by engaging in whole-systems thinking. Full show notes: https://growensemble.com/mighty-bytes-tim-frick/

In this episode, Tim discusses aspects of his coaching career that included everything from working with a young Terry Fox to having phenomenal international success with the Canadian Women's wheelchair basketball team. He also talks about how he and his wife, Gerry are involved with the volunteer organization, German Shepard Rescue of British Columbia. As well, Tim shares stories from his involvement with Rick Hansen's Man in Motion world tour. All that...and his favorite kayaking spots!! How good can it get? Enjoy.

Glynn Washington - Friday Night Lockdown Glynn's father has a strict rule for Friday nights...the Second Coming.Performed live by Glynn Washington at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Jen Kober - Girl Scout Cookies As a littler girl, Jen Kober discovered the allure of being a brownie scout: the Girl Scout Cookie. Holding out for Girl Scout Cookie release day...was another struggle all together.Performed Live by Jen Kober at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Josh Healey - Barbara and Esther When Josh Healey learns some unexpected news from his girlfriend, his first thought...is of Grandma Barbara and Grandma Henrietta.Performed Live by Josh Healey at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter - Captive Audience When Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter was mistakenly arrested at the airport, he learned that his fame could only get him so far.Performed Live by Tariq Trotter at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.Music written by Alex Mandel and performed by the Snap Players Alex Mandel, Tim Frick and David Brandt Season 7 Episode 3

Today we're chatting with Tim Frick of Mightybytes, a digital marketing and web design firm in Chicago.

The hardest character to play is the character without a script.   Magic Lamp Glynn's good luck charm goes missing. Producer: Mark Ristich   Cassandro El Exotico Cassandro is an up-and-coming luchador, a professional Mexican wrestler. He wants to get to the big arenas. He's got the talent, no doubt. But because he's also one of the only openly gay fighters, he's got an uphill battle to get the crowd and the press on his side.  Producer: Eliza SmithSound Design: Leon Morimoto   Gina Gold - The Lusty Lady Pimps beware! Gina Gold is on superhero duty. Performed live at Snap LIVE! in Oakland's Paramount TheaterMusic composed by Alex Mandel and performed by Alex Mandel, David Brandt, and Tim Frick   Neal Brennan - Three Mics Neal Brennan writer, director, comedian and co-creator of Chappelle's Show is in the studio telling a story from his one-man show Three Mics. Performed by: Neal BrennanProducer: Lina Misitzis and Mark Ristich   Season 7 Episode 10

Tim Frick at Mightybytes recently talked with Inc. Magazine journalist Minda Zetlin about how people are using Twitter. Zetlin had recently featured Frick in an article titled Secrets of Highly Effective Twitter Users. After that conversation, Frick wrote his own piece titled 10 Tips For Maximizing Your Twitter Account In this podcast, we review and comment on Frick’s ten tips. Before we discuss these tips, we also discuss some recent events in technology including:The FCC and net neutralityThe iPad and Macbook Air The Rockmelt Browser that integrates social media into your browser.Tim Wu's book The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information EmpiresThe London School of Business and Finance Global M.B.A. - they are offering an MBA through a Facebook applicationHere’s the 10 Twitter tips we discuss: Tip 1. 125 or less. Don’t max out characters. Tip 2: Make the most of search functions. Tip 3: Follow the right people Tip 4: Trends and hashtags Tip 5: Content strategy Tip 6: Use URL shorteners Tip 7: Don't stop at text Tip 8: #NewTwitter Tip: Got TubeMogul Tip 9: Find old Tweets. Tip 10: Alert Yourself Be sure to check out Frick’s excellent book Return on Engagement: Content, Strategy, and Design Techniques for Digital Marketing.