Rhizome, New York, NY
Rute and Mark quickly settled on the idea of developing a portal to track Rhizome’s digital carbon footprint. As Beasley said, “This has been an underexplored area across all digital-first organizations, not just those dedicated to art. So, even if I had an intuitive sense of the technological discussions, I hadn’t done a deep dive into some of the existing research. We were all learning.” Following a broad-based survey of other Teiger grantees about their own digital sustainability journeys, the group decided to focus on the servers hosting Rhizome’s archived net art projects, which account for a significant portion of the organization’s annual budget.

Having that focus unlocked not only progress on data collection—which was accelerated by using Teiger support to bring in another consultant from the Green Web Foundation—but also on related projects. Rhizome had long wanted to create another node on the Solar Protocol Network and used both Teiger funding and the structure of monthly coaching calls to make real progress toward installing a server at the 18th Street Arts Center in Los Angeles.

As they wrapped up their yearlong collaboration, Rute helped Rhizome ensure the language it used to describe its technical research was accessible to a lay reader. Rhizome will soon launch a portal that not only shares what it has learned but also keeps tabs on its infrastructure. As Beasley put it, “Having that visibility helps us to check whatever we’re doing—whether it’s launching a new service or a new exhibition project—for unintended ramp-ups of our carbon usage. It gives us tangible, concrete ways to talk about this and to work toward strategies that lower our impact.”

What Beasley and his colleagues learned has already prompted them to make changes that save both emissions and money. And it has opened up a new area for programming and partnerships as they seek to educate and partner with other organizations on digital sustainability. Beasley again: “This won’t be widespread until there are easy, readily available plug-and-play carbon footprint analytics that are similar to, for example, how Google Analytics tracks website visitors. There are still barriers, but they are getting lower—and the right tooling is coming.”

This story comes from interviews with Alexa Steiner, founder of Rute Collaborative, and Mark Beasley, Lead Developer, Rhizome.
Rhizome, New York, NY. Rute and Mark quickly settled on the idea of developing a portal to track Rhizome’s digital carbon footprint. As Beasley said, “This has been an underexplored area across all digital-first organizations, not just those dedicated to art. So, even if I had an intuitive sense of the technological discussions, I hadn’t done a deep dive into some of the existing research. We were all learning.” Following a broad-based survey of other Teiger grantees about their own digital sustainability journeys, the group decided to focus on the servers hosting Rhizome’s archived net art projects, which account for a significant portion of the organization’s annual budget.

Having that focus unlocked not only progress on data collection—which was accelerated by using Teiger support to bring in another consultant from the Green Web Foundation—but also on related projects. Rhizome had long wanted to create another node on the Solar Protocol Network and used both Teiger funding and the structure of monthly coaching calls to make real progress toward installing a server at the 18th Street Arts Center in Los Angeles.

As they wrapped up their yearlong collaboration, Rute helped Rhizome ensure the language it used to describe its technical research was accessible to a lay reader. Rhizome will soon launch a portal that not only shares what it has learned but also keeps tabs on its infrastructure. As Beasley put it, “Having that visibility helps us to check whatever we’re doing—whether it’s launching a new service or a new exhibition project—for unintended ramp-ups of our carbon usage. It gives us tangible, concrete ways to talk about this and to work toward strategies that lower our impact.”

What Beasley and his colleagues learned has already prompted them to make changes that save both emissions and money. And it has opened up a new area for programming and partnerships as they seek to educate and partner with other organizations on digital sustainability. Beasley again: “This won’t be widespread until there are easy, readily available plug-and-play carbon footprint analytics that are similar to, for example, how Google Analytics tracks website visitors. There are still barriers, but they are getting lower—and the right tooling is coming.”

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