Green Web Design

October 1, 2021

There’s Green & Then There’s Green: A Case for Green Web Design

Imagine: you’re chatting with your web developer about your new site and you tell them that you want it to be green. They might ask, “British racing green or emerald?”.  But what if you want a green site? Green as in sustainable?

Internet use is responsible for roughly 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions— the equivalent to all air travel around the world—and it’s rising.

That’s right, scrolling, swiping, clicking, creates a carbon footprint as big as all commercial and non-commercial flights in a year.

In numbers, if you…

• Send 20 1-MB emails per day = traveling ~1,000 km by car
• Do 2.6 web searches per day for a year = traveling ~1,400 km/car

I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in.

Our internet use, especially since the start of the pandemic, has skyrocketed (and is predicted to continue as more and more folks get “connected”).

Luckily, there’s a solution.

Let’s Talk About Green, Baby

It’s relatively simple (relatively we said). Want less carbon? Reduce– the code, file size, time browsing, you name it.

That’s the thought behind “sustainable” design.. And it works.

Here’s one very easy way you can go green:

• Skip that courtesy follow-up email.

Add a side note to your signature, explain that yes, you’re thankful, no you’re not following up, you’re being green!

According to Ovo, a UK-based energy firm, if every UK citizen cut one courtesy email per day, in one year we could save up to 22 round-trip flights from New York to London.

Take Steps Now!

On top of that? We could get more steps in. Their studies showed that 49% of the emails were sent to folks within walking distance.

So why not up the face-to-face time, bump up your step count and cut your carbon footprint in one go?

You can also:

• Optimise images to reduce file size.
• Think “Navigation Bar for Dummies”: Make it as simple as possible to find information (fewer clicks, fewer loaded pages, we all win.)

Basically? The first step to going green with your website is to be aware of it! Then talk to your web developer on how you can make some small tweaks that will not only be good for the planet, but also your wallet.

If you want to chat green (or actually green– #008000) websites, give us a shout! We’re all about it.

Cheerio!