Is your corporate website sustainable?

By Helena Wennergren

The corporate website is necessary for communicating with corporate audiences and being compliant. Sustainability is a topic that is ever-increasing in importance. Despite having tons of information on their website, companies often forget the significant environmental impact of the website itself.

According to a report by The Shift Project, the digital sector accounts for about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is expected to double by 2025. One of the primary sources of these emissions is energy consumption. Websites are hosted on servers that run 24/7, requiring electricity to store, process, and transmit data. The more data a website uses, the more energy it consumes and the more carbon it emits.

This is where sustainable websites come in. Sustainable websites are designed with the future of people, our planet and profit in mind. They run on renewable energy and consume the least amount of it. They are also accessible and user-friendly.

How to create a sustainable website

There are many ways to create a sustainable website and some of the most common and effective ones are to:

• Choose a green web host. A green web host is a company that powers its servers with renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, or hydro. Talk to your provider or agency if you don’t know if your web host is green. If you’re using Comprend’s Website as a Service, you can rest assured that it is already green.
• Optimize your website performance. A fast and efficient website uses less data and energy than a slow and bloated one. You can optimize your website performance by reducing the size and number of images, videos, fonts, and scripts, using compression and caching techniques, and implementing lazy loading and responsive design.
• Follow web design best practices. A well-designed website is not only aesthetically pleasing but also functional and accessible. Follow web design best practices by using clear and straightforward navigation, typography, and layout, choosing appropriate colours and contrasts, and ensuring compatibility with different browsers, devices, and screen sizes.

The benefits of having a sustainable website

Having a sustainable website can bring many benefits to you, your users, and the planet. Some of these benefits are:

• Reduced environmental impact. Using less energy and emitting less carbon can contribute to the fight against climate change and preserve natural resources for future generations.
• Improved user experience. By optimizing your website performance and design, you can provide a faster, smoother, and more enjoyable experience for your users. This can increase user satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty.
• Enhanced reputation and credibility. By choosing a green web host and incorporating sustainability principles into your content, you can demonstrate your commitment to environmental and social responsibility. This can enhance your reputation and credibility among your users, partners, and stakeholders.
• Increased competitive advantage. Having a sustainable website allows you to stand out from the crowd and differentiate yourself from your competitors. This can increase your visibility, reach, and influence in your niche or industry.

Good examples

There are different tools you can use to check the carbon footprint of your website. Website Carbon Calculator is one example that checks the carbon footprint of single pages. We have looked into a couple of websites and checked 3-4 pages to get an idea. saab.com and ashtead-group.com are two examples of websites with a low carbon footprint:

saab.com

ashtead-group.com

As you can see, a sustainable website can still look nice and use images and videos, when it's implemented in the right way. If you have an older website, it's not unlikely that you have a higher carbon footprint due to older code which is not optimised for a low carbon footprint.

Do you want to know how to make your website sustainable? Get in touch with us!