Last updated: 23 January 2024 at 11:44


AI generated image in possession of the authors. Storytellers and ethical creatives.

Createch companies can play a pivotal role in fostering sustainable living and livelihoods through their creative outputs. For most this means combining powerful storytelling with observance of the ethical and legal consequences of technologies such as Generative AI in particular.

As tellers of stories this begins with conscious decisions made during the design and development phase of content, products and services. By integrating sustainable principles in this stage companies can ensure that the result not only informs but also inspires customers, consumers and suppliers to take action towards sustainability. For instance, the choice of materials in product design, energy efficiency in software development, or the promotion of equity, inclusion and social justice in storytelling can all contribute towards raising sustainability awareness. Hence, the design and development process becomes a crucial starting point for embedding sustainability in the core of Createch companies' offerings.

Here are some ways a Createch business can do this:

  1. Storytelling: Createch companies can use storytelling to communicate complex sustainability topics in a relatable and engaging way. For example, they can create videos, animations, or podcasts that tell the stories with characters living low-carbon lifestyles, or highlight people and communities impacted by climate change, social injustice, or inequality.
  2. Visual content creation: Createch companies can use visual content such as infographics, data visualisation, and interactive maps to communicate the scale and urgency of sustainability issues. For example, they can create interactive maps that show the energy consumption of their business in real-time, or infographics that visualise the social and economic benefits of their actions.
  3. Branding: Createch companies can use their brand identity to communicate their purpose or mission and commitment to sustainability, and to inspire their customers to follow suit in, for example, using eco-friendly hosting, sustainable working practices, or offsetting their carbon emissions.

However, sometimes customers might ask for products or services that are not aligned with the business's sustainability values or goals. In this case, the business needs to handle the tension between meeting customer demands and staying true to its purpose. Here are some ways to approach this challenge:

  1. Education: Educate customers about the business's sustainability values and goals and explain why certain products or services might not align with them. This can help customers understand the bigger picture and make more informed choices.
  2. Alternative solutions: Offer alternative solutions that meet the customer's needs while also aligning with the business's sustainability values and goals. For example, if a customer requests a generative AI model that consumes significant energy during training, suggest a more energy-efficient model or optimisation techniques that maintain performance while reducing the environmental impact.
  3. Transparency: Be transparent about the business's sustainability practices and the impact of its products and services. This can help customers make more informed choices and hold the business accountable for its actions.

In the fast-moving world of Createch, telling the story isn't enough by itself. Businesses need to set guidelines for ethical and legal use of technology. The rapid emergence of Generative AI and other creative technologies based on Large Language Models (LLMs) raises multiple, often complex, legal and ethical issues. In terms of the legal situation, Generative AI content is not exempt from existing laws concerning copyright for example (see the UK Law Society's guidelines for more detail). However, interpretation of those laws is continually evolving as is our understanding of the harms caused. Then there is the issue of private or sensitive information used in prompts or fine-tuning of models becoming public or being misused by technology companies or others. More broadly, businesses need to be conscious not only of the commercial risks but of the potential harms to individuals (for example through job losses), other organisations, communities and the environment when these technologies are employed.

So how should Createch business set themselves up to behave responsibly when using Generative AI:

  1. Use cases: Make a conscious choice of which use cases are suitable for Generative AI and which are not based on fit with your sustainability policy. Consider the social and environmental aspects, not just the financial side. Don't simply default to Generative AI. Be open to commercial trade-offs to support your sustainability mission. For more on how to select use cases responsibly, see this 2024 Briefing Paper from the World Economic Forum.
  2. Attribution: Make certain that use of Generative AI is always declared to audiences, customers and users. For example, if your business offers a customer service chatbot that uses Generative AI images and text, make it clear that it is not a human being. Or if you provide voiceover services with AI generated voices, make that clear too.
  3. Validation: Don't assume that what you get from Generative AI is accurate, legal and ethical. Check with third-party sources before committing to using the output as part of your content, products or services. Generative AI models depend on their training data (which can be biased or contain misinformation or errors) and are prone to 'hallucination" (they make stuff up): these are risks you need to manage if you use Generative AI and there may be a hidden cost in terms of manual effort to filter and correct, or in reputation damage, if you don't.


This information is brought to you by the Centre for Sustainable Design (CfSD) at the University for the Creative Arts in the UK. CfSD was established in 1995 in Farnham, Surrey, UK and is based within the Business School for the Creative Industries (BSCI). The Centre has led and participated in a range of high-quality research projects and has organised hundreds of conferences, workshops and training courses in Europe. CfSD works with partners in Europe, Asia, and North America to deliver high quality results.

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