Digital Declutter: A Guide to Eco-Conscious CME Content Creation

Are you overlooking a major yet often overlooked contributor to climate change through your digital content creation and strategies? Are you unintentionally contributing to the planet's digital carbon footprint?As CME/CE content creators and strategists, we likely don't consider the climate impacts of our websites, documents, videos, and other digital materials. However, all that data requires substantial energy to power the creation, storage, and transfer of bytes, which generates carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.In this eye-opening episode, Alisa Bonsignore, a content strategy and sustainable content expert, reveals the surprising truth about the environmental impact of our digital world. Whether it's the websites we browse, the videos we stream, or the documents we store, our online habits are not as harmless as they seem. For CME medical writers and content creators, understanding this connection is vital in making informed decisions that align with environmental sustainability.In today’s episode, you’ll: Gain insights into how digital content, including websites and emails, contributes to carbon emissions. Learn practical strategies like streamlining and removing unnecessary pages to create more sustainable and climate-friendly content. Understand how to balance visual impact with environmental responsibility when creating graphics, video and other visual media, and in doing so, you’ll enhance the effectiveness of your digital presence. Appreciate the rationale for encouraging practices like video-off meetings and transitioning from video to audio or text formats. Tune in to hear digital sustainability expert Alisa Bonsignore explain how education content creators like you can reduce their climate impacts through smarter governance of bytes and pixels.Connect with AlisaLinkedInVisit Clarifying Complex Ideas for more on sustainable content strategies.Resources Read Alisa's article on calculating emissions from digital content. Learn more about the Content Design Manifesto. Check out Gerry McGovern's book Worldwide Waste on the impacts of devices. Podcast recommendation: Health Literacy Out Loud Time Stamps (04:40) - Introducing Alisa (07:36) - The connection between data, energy, and carbon emissions (09:29) - How writers can think about the implications daily (12:19) - Her entry point into user experience and how it’s important in the work that she does (15:39) - Where to go for up-to-date information about how to think about data and digital imprint (18:46) - How recommendations about reducing digital imprint work when working with clients (21:30) - Her recommendations on messaging and communication for freelancers in the content creator economy (28:21) - Some of the metrics to think about as we consider sustainability or digital sustainability (30:06) - Places to go to find out more about the metrics and resources to raise with clients or employers (31:48) - What the Content Design Manifesto is and involves (35:37) - Alisa’s final thoughts for those who are noodling around the issue of digital imprint TranscriptSubscribe to the Write Medicine podcast!Don’t forget to subscribe to the Write Medicine podcast for more valuable insights on continuing medical education content for health professionals. Click the Follow button and subscribe on your favorite platform. Mentioned in this episode:Why Retreats Work: Disconnection, Body Wisdom, and the Science of Letting GoRewrite Your Power Retreat 2026This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp