How to Make Websites More Environmentally Friendly
Let’s make your website sustainable with a few actionable steps
Although we perceive the internet as something intangible, it's actually a physical entity. Surprisingly enough, the internet contributes to about 4% of global greenhouse emissions due to the power required to make everything work. To put that in perspective, that is the equivalent of all air traffic in the world.
And the bad news is that the figure is expected to double by 2025.
In a context where the consequences of the climate crisis are becoming more and more apparent each day, it's crucial to acknowledge the environmental impact of our digital activities. Join us as we explore the topic of how to make websites a bit friendlier with the environment to reduce our carbon footprint.
5 Actionable Tips to Make a Website Environmentally Friendly
Whether we are conscious of it or not, every time we visit a website, download an image or watch a silly cat video, we are using natural resources: both powering our devices and serving the content we love requires significant amounts of energy.
For eco-friendly brands looking to run a thriving business through the internet, this can be problematic. Regardless of your brand’s sustainability manifesto or its recycled packaging, its online presence still creates an environmental burden.
No one is immune to this issue, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all do our part to lessen the effect our internet browsing has on the planet. So, we did some digging and discovered some easy steps we can take to make websites more sustainable:
Embrace minimalism
In a digital landscape where quantity is taking over quality, a simple website design can be the key to minimizing our environmental footprint. An eco-designed website works with a clear and direct approach, cutting through the clutter to focus on what truly matters to improve the user experience while lessening the impact on the environment.
Designing lightweight websites involves intentional decision-making, focusing on elements that genuinely contribute to user experience while discarding unnecessary digital baggage. That means, for instance, optimizing the assets we use on a website and limiting graphic elements or animations.
In essence, designing a simple site is about making deliberate choices that prioritize functionality over excess. Of course, this means questioning our design habits: do we truly need auto-play videos or redundant images of the same product?
2. Limit your fonts and colors
Simplifying the typographic elements of your website plays a significant role in improving its environmental friendliness. For instance, by using fonts that are already installed by default on most computers, like Arial, Georgia, and Courier, you can avoid unnecessary HTTP requests. This intentional choice promotes efficient loading times and contributes to energy conservation — plus, they will probably help boost accessibility on your website!
Apart from choosing friendly fonts, the color palette on a website can deepen its environmental impact. The more colors you use, the more energy it will consume. Limiting colors not only aligns with minimalist design principles but also reduces the overall energy consumption associated with rendering your website.
The deliberate use of fonts and colors on a website reflects a mindful strategy that prioritizes energy efficiency and contributes to a more sustainable digital environment.
3. Optimize data retrieval
The most efficient energy is the energy that is never consumed. A practical application of this principle involves the strategic use of browser caches to store users' browsing history. By retaining this data, any subsequent visits to the website become more streamlined and require fewer resources and, consequently, less energy.
Rather than expending energy on repetitive processes with each visit, the focus should be on minimizing unnecessary actions. By optimizing the efficiency of data retrieval through browser caches, your website can contribute to a more sustainable digital landscape, conserving energy wherever possible.
4. Use green hosting services
The hosting service you use for your website can have a significant impact on its environmental friendliness. A green hosting service seeks to reduce its carbon footprint by using sustainable materials, renewable energy, and energy-efficient servers. When choosing a green hosting service, consider three key criteria:
Location. The location of the data center plays a crucial role in minimizing energy consumption because storing data closer to your audience reduces the energy required for data transportation across networks.
Energy efficiency. Energy efficiency is vital for data centers. The Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) metric indicates how well a center manages energy costs, and a PUE below 1.1 means exceptional efficiency in power usage. You should check this metric to make an informed decision on which hosting service to use.
Carbon intensity. The carbon intensity of the electricity powering a data center is critical. Choosing a data center powered by low-carbon energy reduces the carbon footprint of digital products.
5. Set up progressive loading
"Lazy" or progressive loading means that the content on your website loads progressively and in real time. This approach for your website content provides a triple advantage:
Faster display. Progressive loading helps display content faster, which both visitors and search engines love. It will not only meet visitors’ demand for fast websites but it’ll also contribute to your SEO strategy.
Smoother user experience. With progressive loading, users experience a smoother and more seamless interaction with the website, as content loads dynamically based on their browsing patterns.
Optimized energy consumption. Progressive loading not only contributes to a more user-friendly experience but also conserves energy by loading only the content that users actively engage with on your website.
Measure Your Website’s Footprint
The first step to improving is measuring. So, before you go and start making changes to your website, it’s important to understand its actual footprint and assess what you can do to mitigate it as much as possible.
Now, accurately gauging carbon emissions from websites is quite complex and involves several challenges. On the one hand, there’s a blatant lack of precise data, as access to data from hosting providers, data centers, and device manufacturers is limited. Also, there are no standardized methods for measuring the energy use of websites, which translates into varying results from different tools and approaches.
However, there are several tools online that can help you get at least an overview of your website’s carbon footprint. For instance, GreenFrame is an open-source solution that allows developers to detect carbon leaks in their websites. It helps businesses to reduce their carbon emissions and reach sustainability goals while meeting the growing demand for transparency on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance.
Another useful tool is Beacon, a simple but effective platform that calculates the environmental impact of websites, offers a detailed breakdown, and suggests measures you can take to improve it. Apart from being straightforward and easy to use, Beacon compares your website’s footprint to that of other activities, like driving or watching Netflix, which helps get a better understanding of its actual impact.
Regardless of which tool you use to get a grasp of the impact your website has on the environment, it’s important that you understand the basic metrics and take the necessary steps to align them with your sustainability goals.
What Does Squarespace Do for Environmental Sustainability?
According to its most recent Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report, Squarespace is actively working to lower its environmental impact through investments in sustainable infrastructure and the implementation of eco-friendly policies.
In terms of hosting, Squarespace hosts its services in data centers and partners with industry-leading cloud computing vendors, such as Amazon and Google, both of which have achieved or are on the path to achieving 100% renewable energy usage.
The company is also working to lower its impact through environmentally conscious policies within its offices, the main source of its scope 1 emissions — that is, emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the company itself.
According to the report, Squarespace has been working throughout 2023 to further collect and measure data related to its energy consumption and carbon footprint. The company also shared that it’s working with a strategic advisor to ensure the accuracy of data measurement and to help implement systems internally to monitor metrics.
Every Single Effort Matters
Embracing sustainability, even through seemingly small actions, contributes to a collective effort that holds the potential for profound positive change. Every deliberate step taken, whether in designing eco-friendly websites, implementing energy-efficient practices, or choosing green hosting, plays a role in fostering a more sustainable digital landscape.
Recognizing the interconnectedness of our choices and their impact on the environment is essential. By making conscious decisions, both individuals and businesses can collectively work towards the greater good and a more environmentally responsible future.
Small actions, when multiplied, have the power to shape a world where sustainability is not just an aspiration but an inherent part of our digital footprint.