DESC’s Governance Structure and Ethical Guidelines

Summary of DESC Ethical Guidelines

The Digital-Environment System Coalition (DESC) places the highest importance on having a clear and transparent governance structure and ethical guidelines for all of its work and activities. DESC members agreed two key documents at their meetings in August 2021, and these are available below:

Members of DESC recognise that these documents are emergent, requiring regular revision to ensure that they continue to adhere to good professional practices and also recognise the changing needs of the membership.

The Governance Framework

The DESC Gocvernance Framework addresses the following matters:

  1. Preamble
  2. Name, history and digital presence
  3. Aims and objectives
  4. Membership
  5. Partnerships and Observer Status
  6. Financial arrangements
  7. Co-ordination
  8. Working Groups
  9. Communications
  10. Safeguarding and ethics
  11. Working modalities
  12. Review

In particular this framework emphasies that DESC is a coalition of individuals and organisations that share a common interest in the interface between digital technologies and the environment. It nevertheless also recognises that Members, Associate Members and Partners have strongly differing views, and three principles therefore underlie its working modality:

  • Recognition of alternative perspectives
  • Desire for consensus-based decision-making wherever possible
  • Respect for diversity of all sorts, but especially relating to age, body shape, disability, ethnicity, gender and gender assignment, language, race, religion and sexual orientation.

DESC’s Ethical Guidelines

DESC is committed to excellence in all that it undertakes, and considers that matters of ethics, transparency and the support for diversity are central to achieving such a commitment.  DESC encourages all Members, Associate Members and partners to strive to do to others as they would have them do to themselves, whilst also recognising that others may have different ethical views to their own.  A visual summary of DESC’s overall guidelines is provided at the top of this page and a visual representation for DESC’s meetings and workshops is also presented below.

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Last updated 3rd April 2022

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