Try to picture greenhouse gases. What comes to mind? Do you see lines of cars on the freeway, smoke stacks, power plants, oil rigs—all of the above? This Earth Month, we’re thinking about a different emitter: websites.
Organizations need websites. They’re often the first place people go to learn about an organization and the epicenter of your digital ecosystem—kind of an “all roads lead to Rome” in communications. But what if Rome needs a little cleaning up?
The average web page generates approximately 0.5 grams of CO2 per pageview. Digital technologies on the whole account for about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In our day-to-day lives, we know how to make greener decisions, such as recycling or shopping sustainably. However, when it comes to our websites, the solutions aren’t so clear. In this resource roundup, we’ve compiled steps you can take to make your website a little more eco-friendly.
Use a Green Web Host
The Green Web Foundation has a goal of making the internet fossil fuel free by 2030, and lucky for us, they’ve built out a directory of hosts that use green energy to power websites. While the list is a great starting point, we recommend doing research to make sure that the host you pursue has climate goals that are as ambitious as those of your organization.
Use Image Optimization Plug-Ins
The basic principle for a more eco-friendly website is: If you want to build greener, build leaner. Optimizing your images is a simple way to make sure that the files on your website are leaner—plus, your site will load faster. Explore plug-ins for WordPress sites, Squarespace, and other best practices.
Try Lazy Loading
In line with the “leaner means greener” theme, it’s time to talk about lazy loading. This technique delays the loading of “non-critical” resources on your page. So, if something is off-screen for a viewer (a video sits at the bottom of your page, for example), lazy loading won’t load the content until the viewer scrolls there. This simple technique lowers your website’s payload and load time, making it greener and more efficient.
Advance Carbon Removal With Patch
Several sustainable web platforms are only good for greenwashing. Not Patch. Patch is a platform that keeps its promise to reduce emissions. The company works to calculate an organization’s carbon footprint, and then systematically compensates by advancing carbon removal projects. They’ve even helped change the way e-commerce companies offset their carbon.
Boost Efficiency With CloudFlare
Unfortunately, most power sources today are still carbon-intensive. CloudFlare is a Content Delivery Network (CDN) that gives organizations the power to perform the same work online with less energy. They boost efficiency by standardizing their servers with a network of similar machines, run on the same code and hardware. TL;DR: CloudFlare’s standardized computing is less energy intensive.
Adopt a Green Content Strategy
Think of this like digital spring cleaning. Even content that’s rarely viewed—like old blog posts—requires enery to store, serve, and back up. And this translates to CO2 emissions. By archiving, pruning, or deleting these low-value pages, you can streamline your site’s footprint and contribute to a lower-carbon web. Watch this webinar with Gerry McGovern to learn more about reducing digital waste.
Keep up With Green Web Trends
Sustainable web practices, like everything online, are evolving. Right now, cutting edge industry solutions involve carbon removal and sequestration, but we don’t know what tomorrow holds. If you’re interested in keeping up with green web practices through podcasts, articles, books, or online communities, we recommend checking out Green the Web.
Closing Thoughts
Sure, we spend lots of our time online, but we spend all of that time on Earth! As stewards of the internet, we can all play a crucial role in transitioning to cleaner, greener web practices. And even if you’re not ready to implement any of these steps just yet, you can always consider out-of-the-box ways to stay sustainable online. Maybe for you, that means more minimalist design or embedding your site’s videos. Any step—and every step—makes a difference. We hope these resources help!
– Your Friends at Constructive
