Sustainable Web Development – Building low-carbon websites
Sustainable web development is essential to reducing the internet’s contribution to climate change – an environmental impact which is on a par with the aviation industry and still rising.
The need to work as efficiently as possible and reduce the carbon footprint of the websites I build became apparent to me once I knew the below fact:
If the Internet were a country, it would be the world’s 6th largest polluter
The internet currently accounts for 2% of global CO2 emissions which means that if it were a country, it would rank 6th in the list of polluters.
This shocking fact seemed to me to be overlooked by most people and businesses when trying to improve their ecological footprint.
So, with this in mind, I decided to research everything I could do to help people and my own company to produce eco-friendly websites and came up with a 7-point action plan which I work to, listed below.
1. Using a Sustainable Web Hosting company
Data centres use a huge amount of energy and a lot of the time that energy comes from coal-fired power stations for their operations and the associated cooling. But this doesn’t have to be the case.
Many web hosting companies now run on renewable energy, including Krystal and Green Geeks, which I use for all the web development projects that I undertake through my company.
Krystal also donate to environmental projects to create a path to a cleaner future and are a B-Corp.
2. Sustainable Web Design and Development
Using efficient coding practices, such as lazy loading and responsive image sizes, I have been trying to reduce the size of the websites I build. This reduces the amount of energy that the websites I build will consume when they are in use.
I also try to use a sustainable web browser, Ecosia, wherever possible.
3. Using a renewable energy company
Both my office in Bristol and my home office run on 100% renewable electricity.
Using a renewable energy company for the premises in which I work is a huge part of maintaining a sustainable method of building websites.
4. Donating to environmental non-profits
I donate at least 1% of my sales to environmental non-profits.
Last year I donated to the Avon Wildlife Trust in my home town of Bristol, which went towards conservation work on a local nature reserve.
I have also partnered with Trees for Life, who are working to regenerate the Caledonian forest across Scotland through native tree planting and rewilding. I have a grove of trees which I add to with every project I undertake.
5. Sustainable travel
I choose to cycle to and from work instead of driving or using public transport, which is actually quicker, therefore doubly efficient. Any meetings I have in and around Bristol I travel by bike as well.
I undertake meetings via online meeting platforms, such as Skype or Zoom, thus reducing the need for unnecessary travel between locations.
6. Volunteering
As often as I can, I volunteer for environmental charities in order to clean up the mess that humans create.
One such charity is Surfers Against Sewage, with whom I have been involved in the Spring and Autumn beach cleans in Bristol for a number of years. Another one is a local reforesting charity Avon Needs Trees.
This usually involves picking up a wide variety of plastic in huge quantities (everything from plastic bottles to Christmas trees!) from the River Avon underneath the Clifton Suspension Bridge, or tree-planting and ecological restoration.
I also volunteer a significant amount of time to designing and building a website for environmentalist Rob Greenfield in order to support his cause of educating people in how to lead a more sustainable life.
7. Buying second-hand and recycling
I tend to buy my hardware second-hand wherever possible. So my laptop, monitor, keyboard, mouse etc are all previously used, rather than new. Apple have a refurbished area in their online store which means you can buy used items and consume fewer resources in the process.
Also, eBay is a great place to find used items, which are often in perfect working condition.
At the end of a piece of hardware’s life I always recycle it. There are various ways to do this and it makes whole lot more sense than throwing perfectly usable components away.
8. Sustainable Banking
Banking is an often overlooked aspect of any business or individual’s environmental impact. The BBC reported that 35 of the world’s major banks have provided $2.7 trillion (£2tn) to fossil fuel companies since the Paris Agreement, which is clearly not in line with any responsible business.
Bristol-based Triodos are my bank of choice due to their support for companies that focus on people, the environment or culture, however they are not currently taking on new business customers, so I chose to go with Monzo, who score well.
9. Food Choices
I choose to only eat vegan / vegetarian meals both inside and outside of work. This helps the planet in a number of ways – from reduced carbon / C02e emissions, reduced water, pesticide, & antibiotic usage, reduced run off and waste, better health, and less cruelty.
10. Carbon Offsetting
Even with all of the above methods for working sustainably, I also offset my actions to further eliminate any negative externalities of my actions. However, I do recognise that offsets sometimes have their detractors, and pitfalls.
At the moment I use Ecologi as they have some verified projects which gives validity to offsetting.
So, in conclusion – from start to finish, my process is environmentally focussed:
– Firstly, I cycle to work, where the power is from renewables
– Then I use renewable energy to build your website, with efficient coding practices, on hardware that was bought second-hand
– Your site is then hosted on servers using renewable energy, which keeps the site from emitting greenhouse gases throughout its usage
– Once the site is finished, a portion of the cost goes to environmental charities in order to improve the natural world
– Lastly, I also contribute to environmental causes, through donations and volunteering. Thus, the project goes beyond being low-carbon and can actually have a net positive impact on the planet.
Podcasts are a good source of information and I have listed a few of my favourites in this post on environmental podcasts.
I am always looking to further my environmental commitments, so if you have any suggestions on how I can do this please get in touch.