Nowadays, the preservation of the environment and, more broadly, ecology, is an increasingly important topic. Indeed, the world is gradually becoming aware of the environmental issues that exist and the necessity to reduce its impact on the planet.
In the realm of the web and digital technologies, these environmental concerns have their place because they contribute significantly to pollution. In reality, digital technologies generate a considerable ecological cost due to their manufacturing, energy consumption, and storage.
In this article, we will learn how to measure the carbon footprint of your website and see how to reduce this ecological impact.
What is the carbon footprint of a website?
Every time we visit a webpage, we cause pollution. Simply accessing a site or even watching a video generates a carbon footprint.
Indeed, when we go to a site, a multitude of actions occur behind the scenes that are invisible to us. All these actions lead to a significant number of requests sent to a server, which processes them and sends a response. These so-called “HTTP” requests consume energy and electricity. And when electricity is consumed, it also means CO2 generation.
The problem today is that websites are becoming increasingly rich in content (images, videos, animations, etc.). The more elements a page contains, the higher the number of requests, and the more pollution is created. With the democratization of the internet and the vast number of pages visited each day, the consequences are disastrous for the environment.
How to test and know the carbon footprint of your website?
There are many free online tools to understand the impact of your web pages on the environment.
Carbon Audit Tool #1: Website Carbon
The first online tool to test the carbon footprint of your website is Website Carbon. The site highlights this statistic: “An average webpage displays approximately 1.76 grams of CO2.”
The site provides a score based on 5 criteria:
- Data transfer over the network
- Energy intensity of web data
- Energy source used by the data center
- Carbon emissions intensity generated by electricity
- Website traffic
If your website is “clean,” you can even earn a badge to showcase it.
Carbon Audit Tool #2: Ecograder
Ecograder is another tool for testing performance related to eco-design. To generate this score, the tool analyzes the content of your site (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and hosting information) and conducts various tests.
The site provides a score based on 6 tests:
- Is your site hosted by an eco-friendly/sustainable hosting provider?
- What is the searchability of your website according to MozRank?
- How many HTTP requests are on your site's homepage?
- What is your page speed according to Google Page Speed Insights?
- Is your site primarily designed for mobile or reactive?
- Have you avoided using Flash on your site?
How to reduce the carbon impact of your website?
Now that you are aware of the carbon footprint generated by your site, let’s explore some simple and effective solutions to improve your score.
1. Reduce the size of your files
All files on your site have a size. The larger this size is, the more it overloads your web pages. Heavy pages are those that take time to load and require more energy to be displayed. Simply reducing the size of your files will improve your site's performance. Moreover, you can remove unnecessary files from your site (that you do not use but take up space). You can also use lazy loading to avoid loading a page all at once.
2. Remove unnecessary animations
Animations on a webpage can create a “wow” effect. However, it is important to know that animations significantly increase the weight of your pages. They require a lot of resources to be loaded and slow down your pages. Therefore, it is advisable not to overuse them.
3. Write high-quality (non-duplicated) content
This point will be beneficial both for reducing the carbon footprint of your pages and for your SEO. Indeed, writing high-quality content will engage users and reduce bounce rates. Furthermore, writing relevant content will help you avoid creating duplicated content. Duplicated content is not good for SEO. It uses unnecessary energy resources because another page already exists, wasting your crawling budget.
4. Optimize your images
Optimizing your images is crucial, yet it is often overlooked by those managing a site. Why optimize images? To reduce page sizes and improve SEO. An image that is the right size and properly compressed will have only beneficial effects for your site. Discover in this article how to optimize your images through dimensions and formats.
5. Limit videos as much as possible
Videos and GIFs require a tremendous amount of resources to display. It is advisable to limit the use of these types of media files on your site. However, you can always use an embed, meaning integrating a video on your webpage via a URL from a hosting platform (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.).
6. Avoid using too many fonts
All fonts have a specific weight (up to 250 KB). Using too many on your site will lead to heavier pages, which is detrimental to the environment. Therefore, it is essential to use no more than 2 or 3 different fonts.
7. Choose a good hosting provider
The choice of your web hosting provider can significantly impact your carbon footprint. Some are not very eco-friendly. To choose a host with environmental considerations, prefer one that is near you. Some web hosts even use green energy.
8. Choose your website colors wisely
The colors on a site can also impact the environment. Dark colors tend to have a reduced impact, while bright colors consume more energy. For daily use, utilizing dark mode in applications can help reduce your carbon footprint.
9. Minify your code
Still regarding the weight of the site and the loading time of your pages, minifying the code (HTML + CSS) of your site will allow for less resource usage.
10. Use caching
In line with the previous point, using caching also helps reduce your site’s weight and improve loading performance.
There you go! You now know what steps to take to lessen your environmental impact through your website. In its Webflow development services, Digidop ensures that you will have a site with a low carbon footprint and thus a reduced ecological impact.
