Insight

From prompt to planet: energy-conscious design with AI

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Written by

Morten Bjørn

Strategic Design Lead

Designing with intelligence and intention

At Manyone, we’re thinking hard about the relationship between AI and climate impact. As we integrate these tools into our daily work, from internal processes to client projects, it’s natural to ask: what’s the cost of these extra capabilities? And what responsibility do we have as designers and technologists to keep that cost and those externalities in check?

Article quick-read:

AI’s environmental footprint is small at the prompt level but grows fast at scale. The decisions we make as designers and technologists building AI products and systems matter far more than our individual ones.
Treating AI like any good digital product – lean, efficient, purpose-driven – helps reduce waste. Energy-conscious design isn’t limiting, it’s just smart.
By prompting wisely, choosing tools carefully, and avoiding excess, we build more sustainable AI practices that don’t trade off intelligence for impact.

Tools we take for granted

The good news: not every use of AI is a moral dilemma. One of the most discussed topics these days is the energy consumption of generative AI prompts. So let’s zoom in on that in particular.

When we use AI in small, scattered ways – a brainstorm here, a summary there – the energy impact is tiny in comparison to other tools in our everyday setup whose energy consumption we’d never question, because we take their presence for granted.

Take an external monitor for your laptop. Sure, it uses electricity, but no one lies awake worrying about its carbon footprint. However, plugging in an average, energy-efficient (30W) monitor for a day (8 hours) would be roughly equivalent to 200 simple prompts (1.15 Wh per prompt) with a default LLM of today.

However, comparisons like this are unproductive at best, because they trap our attention at the individual level. If we zoom out instead and view our impact through a systemic lens, a path to greater impact becomes clear.

Impact that scales

When we as designers and technologists build AI systems – tools used every day, thousands of times – the stakes change. Then, what model we use, how we host it, how we fine-tune it, and how we design the experience really starts to matter. These choices scale. They ripple out.

And they have real energy consequences and externalities.

That’s why it makes sense to us to treat AI product development like we treat all good digital development:

Aim for lean, efficient tech stacks. Avoid overgearing.
Write clean code.
Choose tools that fit the need – no more, no less.

We already do this at Manyone as a matter of principle. Energy just becomes one more good reason to act responsibly.

As designers, the smartest thing we can do is build only what’s needed – no more, no less. When AI scales, every design decision ripples outward, carrying real energy costs. That’s why intention and attention to detail matters.

Morten Bjørn

Strategic Design Lead

Manyone

Curious? Here's where to start

If this subject interests you, I highly recommend following Sasha Luccioni, AI & Climate Lead at Hugging Face. She explained it beautifully on a recent episode of Hard Fork, available on YouTube.

And check out Hugging Face’s Earth Day demo. It shows exactly how much energy your prompt used, and makes it relatable. For instance, we asked it to code a Snake game from scratch, and the prompt used as much electricity as just 0.14 seconds of microwaving.

Easy wins

You might still ask: What can I do to be more energy-conscious with my AI usage? Acting on a systemic level does not exclude acting on a local or individual too, nor should it.

There are easy wins:

Plan your asks before you prompt - this will reduce the total, trust me.

Don’t use advanced reasoning models to draft emails, they’re slower and more power-hungry without being better at simple tasks. And maybe skip the standalone “thank you” replies - every prompt counts.

As with most things: it’s not about never using AI. It’s about using it intentionally.

Want to know more?

Are you interested in Manyone's approach to sustainable design and development, what we've done for other clients, and how we might help your business? Reach out and book a free consultation today.