When people think about carbon emissions, their minds usually jump to the obvious, private planes or long car journeys.
But the internet? Not so much.
It’s easy to forget that the digital world has an actual physical footprint. Every image you upload, every email you send, every time someone loads a page on your website, these all use real energy. That energy has to come from somewhere, and usually it comes from carbon intensive sources.
So while your website might look clean and stylish on the surface, it could be quietly racking up emissions with every click.
If you’ve never thought about the carbon cost of a pageview, you’re not alone. It’s not all doom and gloom. Once you start to understand what contributes to those emissions on your site, you can do something about it.
Helping businesses take the first step
We know that the subject of sustainability can feel like a huge overwhelming topic. It can be hard to know where to start and what to do first. So we’ve broken it down into something practical.
Our digital tips are full of small tweaks that add up. And if you’re not sure where to begin, it’s the perfect place to start.
Read our tips or swipe through the tips below!
Your Site,
Just Greener
Simple steps to lower your site’s carbon emissions.
Optimise Images
Lets start off really easy, making sure the images on your site are optimised by using modern formats like WEBP and AVIF. Serving images in these formats means less data is transferred on every page view, helping to reduce the load time and ultimately reducing carbon emissions.
Green Hosting
This may sound more complicated but it’s simple really. It just means the energy used to host the website comes from renewable green energy. Find out everything you need to know about green hosting at The Green Web Foundation.
Use fewer fonts
Not only does using fewer fonts look more cohesive it also helps your page loading time. A simple step like
sticking to one font throughout your site can play a big role on its sustainability score. A quick tip is to only load in the font weights you need (e.g. bold, thin, italic).
Keep your code clean
Cleaner code, that’s not constantly repetitive, is easier to maintain and optimise overtime. Excessive code can be added through plugins, extensions and pre-built themes commonly found on platforms such as WordPress. The more code you load = more resources needed = more carbon emissions.
Optimise your site on all devices
Ensure your site works really well over all devices, this helps reduce wasted bandwidth, taking up less space means lowering emissions. On mobile, load in an image size suitable for a mobile device, for instance, don’t load a 1920px wide image on a 425px wide device.
Avoid redundant plugins
Just like that junk draw in your kitchen the backend of your site needs a regular clean out. Regularly reviewing your installed plugins and removing any unused ones improves page speed and security.
Avoid autoplaying videos
Automated videos take up lots of space, they keep running regardless of the users interest, meaning carbon emissions are produced whether the video is watched or scrolled right past. Additionally, using Lazy Loading images on your site can lower emissions as images only load when they come into view.
Cache Policy
Think of caching like your browser’s memory. The first time someone visits your site, their browser grabs a copy of things like images, fonts, and layout.
With a good cache policy in place, the next time they visit, it doesn’t have to load everything all over again.
Some of these tips may seem small but together they can have a big impact!
Performance and planet can go hand in hand
We all have a role to play in making sure our websites don’t come at too high a cost to the planet.
Small changes can really make a big difference, especially if we all work together to make a cleaner, more thoughtful web.
