"Down to Earth": Design Considerations for AI for Sustainability from the Environmental and Climate Movement
Amelia Lee Doğan, Hongjin Lin, Lindah Kotut · 2025
As the Earth's temperature continues to rise, increasing investments are being made to develop artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to address the current climate crisis.Through interviewing 19 participants-comprising climate and environmental advocates and developers of AI for sustainability in the US and Canada-we examine how advocates perceive and use these technologies, and how their perspectives converge and diverge from practitioners developing AI for sustainability.We identified three key findings: 1) while approaches differ, developers and advocates expressed care for people and the planet; 2) the developers' and advocates' values and perceptions of AI technology varied, especially around ethical issues; and 3) developers and advocates had distinct approaches to using and designing AI and digital tools.Our findings, guided by a climate justice lens, underscore the need for decision-makers to: engage with advocates from intended beneficiary communities early in the design process; prioritize the urgency of the climate crisis; and emphasize the tangible environmental and societal impact of digital systems.