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AI and sustainability - a practical tip that really "rocks"

  • May 6
  • 2 min read
Dr hannah Collins at her desk

As part of my recent work with the Association of Science and Discovery Centres (case study featured in my Expert Facilitation pages), I listened to a thought‑provoking talk from Chris Dunford, Sustainability & Science Director at We The Curious, about the intentional approach they’re taking to explore the future of AI in their operations. It really got me reflecting on my own daily use of AI at Hannah Collins Unlimited. In a solopreneur business, it’s the colleague I turn to when I’m blocked, the one that runs the occasional information errand (always cross‑checked!) And sometimes my back office (though not for the confidential stuff!)

 

What Chris shared re‑connected me with some important sustainability considerations:

 

  • Water use: The UK Government Digital Sustainability Alliance reported in 2025 that global water usage from AI is predicted to rise from 1.1bn to 6.6bn cubic metres by 2027 - more than half of the UK’s total annual water use.

 

  • Energy demand: The International Energy Agency (IEA)’s 'Key Questions on Energy and AI' (2026) highlights that electricity demand from data centres jumped 17% in 2025, with AI‑focused centres growing even faster, far outpacing the global electricity demand increase of 3%.

 

One insight from Chris’ presentation really landed with me:

 

Good prompts reduce unnecessary processing, and therefore reduce environmental impact.

 

As a coach and facilitator, a big part of my craft is asking good questions of humans! What’s the quality of the questions I’m asking my AI “colleague”? And how might that quality translate into lower environmental impact? So I started digging...

 

And I found the ROCKS method

A simple, memorable guide for writing effective AI prompts that avoid unnecessary computation:

        🎸Role - Identify your role
        🎸Objective - State your objective
        🎸Community - Specify your audience
        🎸Key - Describe tone, style, or parameters
        🎸Shape - Define the desired output format

(Credit: Thanks to a great post from National Centre for Atmospheric Science for pointing me to the ALDESD CoDesignS AI Framework, 2024)

 

(AND apologies to my geologist readers who would have used this emoji 🪨!)

 

A few weeks ago, I responded to a Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) LinkedIn post about what small businesses are doing to be more environmentally friendly. I talked about transport choices and sustainable resource swaps. I wish I’d added this too. It turns out the questions we ask, of humans AND machines, shape the impact we make!

 

As a coach, I love a small, practical step toward a bigger goal -

🎸ROCKS🎸 is now one of mine. Could it be one of yours?

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