What is sustainable WordPress?
First a quick tour down the rabbit hole “sustainable”.
“Sustainable” is a word that has been used, abused, overused and misused so much lately that it has fallen into the state of pop clichè. These days you only need to add sustainable to anything to get a more positive, acceptable, palatable or ecological version of what ever that thing is. A quick search on Google and chatGPT with the phrase “define sustainable WordPress” and at least 75% of the answers are in the currently fashionable ecological meaning of the expression. (Green hosting, CO2 debt and climate change)
But that is not what we mean by sustainable WordPress. We mean the adjective sustain as it describes the noun WordPress. Not the other way around which seems to be the popular interpretation these days.
WordPress is software, and sustainable software, WordPress or any software for that matter needs design, coding and maintenance that will allow the software to function as expected for a forseeable future and budget.
Are Google and chatGPT wrong in thier definition?
Yes they are wrong, but they get a weak pass as they are correctly interpeting sustainability, but not WordPress. WordPress is software. WordPress is an virtual entity, it is abstract, it is code that is presented by a machine and deliveres content and media to the observer. there is no physical impact of the code itself. The hosting, the network, the wi-fi and the devices that transmit the code they are real and they have carbon footprints and power consumption and they definatly fall in the realm of the enviornment and the popular world of sustainability.
But we did not ask for a definition of “sustainable WordPress hosting” or site delivery or battery consumption on your laptop.
So it seems that Google and chatGPT are guessing that we mean something else. Something which is more popular these days. Even though that assumption doesnt make all that much sense. (but thats a rabbit hole for another day)
OK 75% wrong, what about the 25% right.
Yes there are some probes in the right direction by our famously “intelligent” friends.
Sustainable design, longevity, maintenance and bingo, software sustainability. And as software is buisness, sustainability is also economy.