Estimating the Impact

About six years ago, I bought a hybrid smartwatch. Wearable tech was taking off, but I already knew I didn’t want another screen in my life. This one looks like a regular, old-school watch. It tells the time and date, it doesn’t interrupt me, and it quietly tracks a few simple things: my sleep, my daily steps, my heart rate, and the workouts I remember to turn on. Over the years, the watch became more useful than I expected. I could see how my activity dropped every winter, how stress affected my sleep patterns, and how small daily habits made a measurable difference. Friends who use wearables say the same. The numbers aren’t perfect, but they make trends visible, and that visibility is what makes the data valuable. You stop guessing. You start understanding. Tracking a handful of personal metrics is straightforward. Tracking the environmental impact of digital products is not. But the principle is identical: until you measure something, you’re only guessing. And guessing your way toward sustainability won’t take us far.