The Impact of Websites on the Environment
Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels
The Internet World Stats (1) suggests that there are approximately 1.8 billion websites running online, drawing in over 4 billion daily visitors. With the need to reduce our carbon footprints to help save the planet, it can be seen that the more life moves online, the less physical damage we are doing to our environment. However, this is barely the case.
The use of the internet alone causes emissions of approximately 2,330,041 tons of CO2 and consumes 2,339,400 MWh of electricity every day. At a granular level, every single internet search consumes about 0.3 Wh of energy and contributes to the release of 0.2g of CO2 in the environment. (2) According to HTTPArchive.org, the average web page today is nearly four times the size that it was in 2010 and is continuing to rise. (8) To put this into context if the internet were a country, it would be the 7 the largest CO2 emissions polluter in the world and makes up 4% of all greenhouse gases.
This stresses the importance for businesses to create ‘green websites’. Most of the issues that increase your site’s carbon footprint are also the same issues that make your site load slower, so any changes for the planet are also for your consumer (7) - consumers tend to prefer simpler websites too as the interface is simpler to navigate. So What is a ‘green website’ and how can you ensure your website is less impactful on the environment?
An example of a good, energy-saving website:
“Amsterdam-based design studio FormaFantasma went one step further in its website overhaul earlier this year. It goes back to basics: a plain white background, system typefaces like Arial and Times New Roman, minimal font weights and classic blue hyperlinks. Pictures are kept small, and site visitors have the option to enlarge them; information about the file weight of each full-size image is visible if they hover over them. The entire site can be viewed in dark mode to reduce screen brightness and energy consumption”. (5)
Photo by George Milton from Pexels
How can you ensure you are running a ‘green website’?
Know your website’s environmental footprint
Use this helpful resource to work out your website’s current carbon footprint:
It calculates:
The amount of data that your site transfers
The energy intensity of web data in general
Whether your host is known to use green energy
The carbon intensity of electricity in general
Your site’s website traffic (you need to add this manually) (7)
Compress and reduce images to rescue server space
Reduce the size of all your images, compress them so they take up less space and take less energy to load
Get your website scripting in order
Trim your clunky Javascript, this will increase your website loading speed which in turn usually increases the time consumers spend on your site
Choose your programming language wisely: scripting languages, for example, PHP uses about seven times more energy than JavaScript (6)
Code does have an impact — it takes energy to run applications and transmit data, so inefficient and bloated code can add up to a significant environmental impact (6)
Website host location
Place the website closer to your consumers using local CDNs, this helps reduce network latency and improves their brand experience
Use eco-focused host sites such as this
Optimise your mobile site
Use accelerated mobile pages (AMP) to strip down the existing version of a web page helps reduce carbon emissions (2)
Good SEO helps save the planet
Ensuring your website is optimised for search will help direct users straight to the content they are looking for without needlessly browsing other pages saving energy on server interaction (3)
If you need help with any of the above, or want to talk to use about how SEO and good digital practice ideas and solutions can help save the planet then do get in touch with us below.