New section on environmental impacts

index.html

@@ -1412,6 +1412,102 @@ <h3>Biometrics</h3>
     </section>
   </section>
 
+  <section class="informative">
+    <h2>Environmental and Ethical Considerations</h2>
+
+    <section class="informative">
+      <h3>Broad Ethical Principles</h3>
+      <p>
+        As with all things, strong consideration for the appropriate and ethical use
+        of technology should be made when implementing items related to DIDs.
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        A reliable guide for making assessments of various technologies and weighing
+        ethical considerations is the 
+        <a href="https://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/ethical-web-principles/">W3C TAG Ethical Web Principles</a>
+        document.
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        As noted in the <a href="https://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/ethical-web-principles/#principles">Principles</a>
+        section of the Ethical Web Principles, there are certain key goals that should 
+        apply to all Web standards and technologies, and DIDs support furthering serveral
+        of these goals explicitly, especially the following
+        <ul>
+          <li><a href="https://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/ethical-web-principles/#privacy">Privacy</a></li>
+          <li><a href="https://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/ethical-web-principles/#control">Individual Control</a></li>
+          <li><a href="https://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/ethical-web-principles/#multi">Device Independence</a></li>
+        </ul>
+      </p>
+    </section>
+
+    <section class="informative">
+      <h3>Energy Usage and Environmental Impacts</h3>
+      <p>
+        When implementing or utilizing a DID method, consideration should be given
+        to the environmental impacts of any underlying technologies.  For example
+        there are clear impacts from excess energy use from use of the "proof of work"
+        approaches in various blockchains or distributed ledgers.
+        Avoidance of excess energe use, particularly when that energy is sourced
+        from non-sustainable energy creation methods should be a best practice 
+        that serves the interest of all.
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        The guiding principle that 
+        <a href="https://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/ethical-web-principles/#sustainable">the web must be an environmentally sustainable platform</a>
+        should be followed.
+      </p>
+
+      <p class="advisement">
+        Utilizing or authoring DID methods that rely on "proof of work" as part
+        of their required technical implementation or utilization should be highly
+        discouraged if not viewed as irresponsible.
+      </p>
+
+      <p>
+        When selecting a DID method, the method that minimizes energy consumption 
+        while meeting interoperability and other technical requirements should be 
+        chosen.
+      </p>
+
+      <p class="advisement">
+        It is strongly recommended that authors of DID methods provide an assessment
+        of energy usage and impact of their DID method, preferably performed by
+        an independent third party.
+      </p>
+    </section>
+
+    <section class="informative">
+      <h3>Considerations for Applications related to Human Rights</h3>
+      <p>
+        Use of DIDs in furtherance of the improvement of the overall condition of 
+        the human species is highly desirable.  Examples of related work where 
+        decentralized technologies have been utilized to prevent use of minerals
+        sourced from conflict zones may be found in the following reports from
+        <a href="https://sustainability.google/progress/projects/traceability/">Google</a>
+        and
+        <a href="https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple-Conflict-Minerals-Report.pdf">Apple</a>.
+        DIDs serve a unique purpose in supporting privacy and enabling individual 
+        control over identity while also enabing accurate tracing of an individual
+        item's provenance to ensure that that item did not originate from use of
+        forced labor or have other aspects in its production process or supply 
+        chain that were inconsistent with a basic respect for human rights. 
+      </p>
+
+      <p>
+        Use of DIDs to trace the environmental impacts of various supply chains 
+        has already been performed, specifically in areas of food and agricultural
+        products, and without use of ledgers requiring "proof of work".  
+        This type of usage demonstrates clearly that the new technology can be utilized 
+        in a manner that the consumed energy is balanced by the advantage of being able
+        to understand environmental impacts and make suggestions to actors in 
+        the supply chain under analysis that facilitate improvement of the overall 
+        environmental situation for our shared planet.  This type of usage of 
+        DIDs, for areas that help us understand, mitigate, and respond to our shared
+        crisis of human caused climate change should be promoted. 
+      </p>
+    </section>
+  </section>
+
   <section>
     <h2>Future Work</h2>
     <p class="note">