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Responsibility to the Future

Recognising and addressing the long-term impacts of developing and using digital systems – ensuring that they are safe, fair, and sustainable for us now and for future generations

Responsibility to the Future means recognising that digital systems do not only affect the people using them today. The choices made in designing, operating, funding, and governing digital infrastructure shape what future generations will be able to know, remember, access, inherit, and trust.

We believe that public-serving systems should not only be designed for efficiency or immediate convenience, but for long-term resilience, sustainability, safety, and civic value.

For a public-serving entity, Responsibility to the Future means preserving important records, knowledge, and public-interest materials in forms that remain accessible and understandable over time. It means maintaining proper backup, preservation, and continuity plans so that information and services are not lost through technical failure, institutional change, or commercial collapse.

It means recognising the environmental costs of digital infrastructure and designing systems to minimise unnecessary energy use, waste, and resource consumption wherever reasonably possible. It also means considering explicitly how digital systems affect children, vulnerable groups, and future generations, particularly where systems shape behaviour, attention, access to knowledge, or public participation.

Example requirements (illustrative)

These example requirements are grounded in established international standards, regulations, and laws, which are listed in full in the section below.

  • Children, vulnerable groups, and future generations are considered explicitly in the design and deployment of significant digital systems.

  • Systems are designed to minimise avoidable environmental impact, energy consumption, and unnecessary computational waste.

  • Environmental impacts of significant digital infrastructure, including energy use and sustainability policies, are publicly documented.

  • Organisations assess and publish significant long-term social, environmental, and operational risks arising from their digital systems and infrastructure.

  • Digital records, publications, and public-interest materials are stored in formats intended to remain accessible over time.

  • Organisations maintain backup, preservation, and continuity plans for important public information and services.

  • Public-interest digital infrastructure is designed to support long-term civic memory, democratic accountability, cultural continuity, and public access to knowledge.

Standards, regulations, and laws informing this work

Organisations working in this area

Related standards: provenance Interoperability